


I Don't Know You, But You Can't Leave Me

by Amarantha



Category: James Bond (Craig movies), James Bond (Movies), Skyfall (2012) - Fandom
Genre: AU, Age Difference, Alpha Bond, Alpha/Beta/Omega Dynamics, Alternate Universe, Angst, Angst and Fluff and Smut, BAMF James Bond, Body Worship, Bonding, Bottom Q, Dubious Consent, Fluff, Fluff and Smut, Forced Breeding, Heats, Hurt Q, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Jealous James Bond, M/M, Mpreg, Omega Q, Omega Verse, Porn With Plot, Protective James Bond, Q Backstory, Smut, Top James Bond
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-09-28
Updated: 2016-04-24
Packaged: 2017-12-27 20:23:25
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 13
Words: 31,576
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/983210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Amarantha/pseuds/Amarantha
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It wasn't that Q expected to get pregnant. He hadn't thought he was an omega to begin with, much less imagine the situation he found himself in- unbonded and growing rounder by the day. Having an alpha would be easier, but all alphas are muscle bound, brainless idiots. </p><p>Except James Bond. He's always the exception, both strong and intelligent, just in different ways than Q. He's also the alpha who conveniently put Q in this troublesome situation in the first place before vanishing. James Bond also doesn't exist in any public record, which makes finding him incredibly difficult. </p><p>It's a good thing Q was never one to give up.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter One

**Author's Note:**

> Hi, everyone! So this is my first story on AO3, my first venture into 00Q, AND my first omega verse- to say I like jumping straight into the deep end when doing things is an understatement. I hope I don't disappoint and can deliver you guys a good story. 
> 
> On that note I do have a few things to say:
> 
> 1) This is not beta-ed or Brit picked. So excuse my mistakes and inaccuracies. I'll try my best to eliminate both, but I'm only human.
> 
> 2) This is an AU. Elements have changed. Q doesn't work for MI6 and Skyfall hasn't (or won't, not sure about that detail yet) happen yet. MI6 does exist and James is still 007. Personally I'm not fond of AU's where Bond isn't 007 just because I feel like you lose half of his character without the agent-ness and title. But that's personal preference!
> 
> 3) Like all omega verses this is my own take on it and certain elements are unique. One detail that is important to the story is that an omega's first heat typically is an infertile one. There are exceptions, which is why this story exists. A few more differences may pop up, but I'll you figure those ones out as you read along.
> 
> Enjoy!

Four hours ago Q was a faceless facet of the crowd. Ordinary, unexciting, and very much beta. Four hours ago the worst things he had to worry about were covering up her cyber prints- not actually a hard task, he wasn't incompetent thank you very much- and not falling asleep in english lectures. Four hours ago he had lately presented in one of said lectures as something very much not beta and an hour later he'd found himself snatched from the sidewalk walking back from the university. Now he rather wished he'd stayed locked in his bedroom playing sick instead of going to classes.

Q glared at the white walls that screamed sterile even if he couldn't smell the sharp burn of antiseptics. They had confiscated his mobile, tablet, and laptop when they took both his uniform and satchel, without the distractions Q's mind was racing with the very real situation he found himself in. Q was not stupid by any means and he knew exactly just where he was. The clean atmosphere, unnaturally silent room, and the only furnishing being a queen sized platform bed against the far wall were dead give aways, even if the orderlies hadn't handcuffed him to the bed posts after he fought viciously to get away. 

This was a government breeding house. One of the handful set up around the country after the law ordered every unbonded omega to report to them upon their first heat to breed if at all possible. They had begun in attempt to address the declining omega and alpha population in what was publicized as good intent. Q didn't believe that for a moment. Even as a beta and unaffected by such laws, Q had seen it as an attempt to regress back to the ways where omegas were once again objects to be bought and sold between alphas and sometimes even wealthy betas. If he didn't escape- which was appearing less and less likely as the minutes ticked by- he'd be breed like a bitch by some old alpha who got off on taking young omegas.

Growling, Q tugged at the padded cuffs uselessly. They wouldn't budge having been designed to hold down stronger and larger omegas than Q was himself. Q wouldn't give them the satisfaction of watching him thrash and squirm like an angry fish against his restraints. He do this smartly, if he could do it at all. 

Fighting against the cuffs only made them tighter, Q observed as much after his initial attempts at escape. They loosened automatically after the captive stopped fighting for a period of five minutes, yet still remained firm enough to keep them in place. It was a problematic trigger, but after testing their ranges and what sort of motion set off the mechanism, Q was fairly certain he could twist his wrist into a position where his fingers could easily brush the opposite hand's cuff comfortably. With a pin or clip, he might have been able to pick the lock from this position. He had neither and even if he did, there was also the problem of the door. With no knob, there was no way to force it open from this side. 

"Shit."

Q groaned as he slumped back down limply against the mattress, arms strung up above his head. This was useless and he knew it. These places were trained in how to keep omegas here for the duration of their heat- however long it lasted. One skinny, teenage boffin wasn't going to be able to escape with only his mind and body as tools. Q would need a miracle he didn't believe in to prevent his ultimate rape because laws be damned that's what this was: rape. No matter how much his body screamed that yes it wanted it in a heat induced craze, his mind would still be against it, and in the long run that was all that mattered to him. 

There was no counting time in the small room, so Q wasn't sure if it was minutes or even hours before he finally heard the click of the lock opening the door. He tensed at the sound, sitting up as far as the cuffs would allow him. Uncomfortable as it was with the pull on his wrists, Q's pride demanded he be as dignified as he could manage naked and cuffed to a bed.

The noise started filtering in as soon as the door came open with a sharp bang against the adjacent wall. Q jumped and stared wide eyed as five orderlies- all burly, male betas- struggled to toss a person into the room. The effort of their attempts was visible in their tense jaws and bulging muscles as their grip shifted to match the trashing of the individual. It was quite a fight, even managing to bring a smirk to Q's lip when he watched the captive's fist met its mark against one of the orderlies nose with a satisfying crunch. The beta's nose would be broken, undoubtably. In Q's opinion, the bastard deserved it. 

The struggle didn't last long as another two betas finally came to offer aid. All seven managed to shove the man into the room and quickly bolted the door shut before the other could even straighten back upright. The silence was deafening, broken only by each inhale and exhale Q and his company made. Q took a moment to assess him while the other wasn't focused on him. His guest was a man of a strong build, mildly tan, and older than him by fifteen or so years at least. Even though he was standing with his back to him, Q could sense that this man was quite capable of anything and wasn't above that. The display with the orderlies aside, he was dangerous and for some reason Q found that immensely attractive. He shouldn't, but he did.

Q took a risk and sniffed at the air, nearly toppling over with a whimper at the scent that hit him. Sandalwood, gun oil, and something identifiable only as the man's own musk swarmed Q's senses and reminded him sharply of the state of his own body. Up until this point Q had managed to ignore the building warmth coiling low in his stomach and the unreachable itch inside him to be bred. Now the sensations hit him full force as the new, primal omega part of him identified the man as a very capable and fertile alpha. Q bit down on his bottom lip as another whimper tried to tear itself from his throat.

He must have failed, because the alpha turned to him for the first time and swore. Q was too caught up in those very blue eyes to notice the exact words used, but if he were to assume it sounded something along the lines of 'fuck'. 

"You're close." Q caught that. Unfortunately the man's voice only served as further appeal to that instinctive part of his mind and he couldn't hold back a small mewl. "Fuck."

Q wouldn't have been able to get a legible sentence out of his mouth in response even if he had tried. A large part of him, the side that he was slowly succumbing to, was only focused on getting the alpha to knot and breed him. He wasn't coming fast enough and it was starting to make Q squirm. Q wanted that big alpha over him and taking him again and again- Q clenched his jaw. No, no he didn't. 

Neither did the man though. Or at least, Q was assuming as much from the display with the orderlies. Q clung onto that fact with his logical mind with fervently hope that perhaps the other would be strong enough to refrain. Doubtful at best, Q knew. There wasn't an unbonded alpha alive that could restrain themselves around an omega in full heat. Especially one in such a closed off environment, specifically meant to trap them both in the pheromones coming off Q's body in thick waves. 

The blonde alpha swore again, pacing further away.

"You don't want this."

It wasn't a question and Q found himself rolling his eyes- he could manage that much. The alpha's lips quirked at the corners, before falling flat into a grimace.

"Fucking bastards. I'm going to kill them when I get out of here." The man swore as he turned away again, pressing a hand into his face while the other clenched against the wall. His knuckles were white. "Fuck. What are you like, fifteen?"

Q had enough control over himself to glare back as he bit out, "Twenty."

The alpha looked even more amused by the admission than anything. His blue eyes seemed to dance with it. 

"Have a name?"

"Q." That was simple enough.

The alpha, though still tense, arched his eyebrows. "A letter. You've got to be joking."

Q managed a glare, being just clear headed enough to manage feeling annoyed. "Even if it weren't my name, what have you done exactly to deserve having it handed to you?"

Surprisingly the alpha didn't jump him there in anger for his insubordination. Q was under no illusion that any other alpha would have done nothing less, omegas that didn't act their status were often beat into submission. Even publicly, disgusting as that was. Instead this alpha's eyes gleamed in amusement, eclipsing the turmoil there for just a moment.

"Bond. James Bond."

Q frowned, shuffling back against the sheets and hissing as the fabric rubbed against his skin. He was feeling hot, hotter than a few moments ago at least. That and he swore he could feel an uncomfortable pain building low in his gut.

"What?" He bit out through clenched teeth, curling forward even as the cuffs pulled at his wrists harshly.

The alpha frowned and took a half step forward before he seemed to realize what he was doing. When he did, Q watched him quickly plaster his body back against the far wall. 

"That's my name." James elaborated. 

He didn't seem to be aware that his voice had dropped an octave, Q thought in dark humor. They both were fighting the inevitable and only causing more pain in the long run. One of them would have to be the bigger of the two and accept their fate before forcing the other's hand. It would be more pleasant for the both of them then. A deprived alpha that had been baited for too long before claiming an omega was a violate one. Q didn't fancy walking away with anything more than a bit of broken dignity and his inevitable lose of virginity. 

Sighing, Q forced himself to sit upright and regard James seriously. The alpha wasn't playing attention to him anymore, his eyes hidden behind two palms working circles into the muscles of his face. Q didn't need to read much further to see the underlying tension in James' body. He was fighting his instincts, but it was obvious that the will would bend eventually. Sooner rather than later. Logically, Q was about to do them both a favor.

"I won't get pregnant."

James' head shot up, blue eyes searching Q's face. What they saw there Q couldn't say, but it had the alpha take a hesitant step forward before freezing in place.

"How can you be sure?"

Q felt his face heat up and he had to advert his eyes. "This is my first."

Understanding and dread covered the alpha's face. An omega's first heat was nearly an infertile one even though the body appeared to be preparing itself for breeding. No one really understood the biological reason of why this was true, though there were speculations. Most were based around age. Typically an omega presented from ages fourteen to sixteen and modern biologists believed that their bodies had not fully developed into a functioning form of their gender. Yet that theory has been undermined by the statistics of late presenters also going through their first heats without successful conception. The statistics for success was below three percent for a first heat, while for all the following ones ranged somewhere in the eighty percentiles. 

The alpha drilled his gaze into Q's. "Tell me, have you done anything like this before?"

Q shook his head. He knew he couldn't lie about his sexual history or lack thereof. His burning cheeks did a well enough job at giving him away as much as his inexperience would later. 

"Christ," James swore, but he didn’t back up. That was an improvement, Q thought, or worse depending on how you choose to look at it.

“It’s alright with me, if it’s you that is,” Q admitted quietly and it wasn’t a lie. If it was James, Q could allow himself to submit to his heat. It was clear both of them were being forced into this equally, that James didn’t want it as much as Q didn’t. He wasn’t another one of those alpha’s who were here just to try the omega of the week. For that much, Q wouldn’t hold what biology forced them through against James. It wasn’t his choice to be faulted for it.

James had begun to shake his head and form a protest, but Q cut him off with a sharp glare. “If you don’t, they’ll remove you and just place another alpha in here. I highly doubt they’ll be as considerate concerning the situation.”

It might have been a cruel thing to do, but by mentioning the threat of another alpha, Q had pushed James into instinctive action to protect and take what the alpha part of him considered as his. It was a core instinct demonstrated in all alphas and he expected no less than to be pinned down to the bed by the alpha. What he hadn’t quite expected was to respond positively to it all.

Q squirmed beneath the solid weight of James, practically purring even as he whined and tried to buck up against the other. The additional weight felt good- terribly so- but it wasn’t enough. He wanted James all over him, spreading his scent, leaving his marks, letting every other alpha know that Q belonged to this beautiful alpha above him- breeding him. 

James smirked down at him, the last of his hesitation gone from those blue eyes. Q mewled and stretched his neck, trying to entice the alpha further. He startled when a wet tongue swept a strip from the curve of his neck to his ear. Shock faded into pleasure quickly though as the alpha chuckled lowly next to his ear.

“I’m going to bred you, Q. I’m going to fuck this beautiful body of yours until I knot you. Then I’m going to fill you with my seed until there’s no chance you won’t be carrying my pup. And when that’s done, I’m going to do it again.” 

Q moaned.


	2. Chapter Two

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm am so sorry it took so long to get this chapter up! If you guys are still following it, I want to thank you for your patience. Real life got in the way and this past year and a half has been a hellish ride for me. I lost so much including my will to create anything. I actually found this piece lingering in my writing folder and after reading your guys', frankly amazing, responses I just couldn't leave it like I had. So I'm returning, I just hope you guys can just bare with me while I get these chapters posted. I'll try to get at least one up a month, if not more. The next chapter is also partly written as we speak and I have a more defined layout for how this story is going to go now. 
> 
> Also, I'm sorry for any grammar or typo errors. This hasn't been beta'd.

James took a moment to soak in the picture the youth made beneath him. An hour ago he had believed himself immune to beautiful things with how often he seduced and fucked them. James had had a bit of everything: omega, beta, and yes sometimes even other alphas. All pretty, beautiful things that he’d had the pleasure of knowing for a night. He was no stranger to a pleasing face and body, but this one- this omega- was something else.

Q, or as much as the omega claimed as his name, was a type of breathtaking that knocked James’ instincts sideways, backwards, and then rerouted them all together. It was something he wasn’t used to being in the bedroom. With all his other conquest, casual and work related, he’d never felt the alpha urge to lay claim to his partner. Hell, he’d spent heats with omegas before where he fucked and left before the three days were up. Q inspired a need for so much more from him. James was being more than brutally honest when he told Q what he wanted to do to him. He wanted to see the omega filled with first himself and then later grow large with his pups. His alpha fucking purred at the thought of Q’s angular form, the one that made the kid so visually striking in the first place, growing soft and round with pregnancy. Fuck, James actually wanted to see that- multiple times. 

Q whimpered, body rutting itself up against James’ in an unspoken demand for attention. The look he gave James was almost- dare James say it- haughty. 

“Are you seriously going to just sit there all day?” Q gritted out between a moan when James rolled his clothed hips down onto Q’s erection. James smirked at the heated flush that worked its way onto those sharp cheekbones. “Or,” James watched Q’s throat bob as the omega swallowed back another moan, “or were you planning on making me do all the work?”

James chuckled, leaning down to nip lightly at the underside of Q’s jaw. It was good to see that the omega retained his ability to be snippy even under the influence of his heat. It was one of his more endearing qualities. James wondered if Q was like this all the time- a package of fearlessness and wit. It would have made him a good alpha or beta, as an omega however it was a trait bound to get Q in trouble. Most alphas would use force to make an outspoken omega submit. The thought of Q being harmed by anybody, alpha or not, made James gut clench and brought a growl to his throat. 

Q’s brows furrowed in a sweaty frown at the sound and James doubted that on anyone else it would have looked so appealing. On Q, it was nearly as adorable as the noises coming out of his mouth.

“Hm, I do believe I was planning on savoring this experience,” James said, even as he rolled his hips in a manner that perfectly aligned them with Q’s and left them both groaning at the friction. Q’s heat was hover right there, almost on them and there would be no time to tease and taunt when their instincts overwhelmed them. James gritted his teeth. “No sense in rushing, we do have at least three days.”

Q threw his head back and moaned at the next tortuous thrust. His dark mop of curls splaying out around him in a dark halo that make him look like some displaced angel. Only, angels would weep to have the same thick curls and pale skin- now flushed with arousal and heat. James might have been tempted to believe that visage, if it weren’t for that sinful mouth which made noises that even the devil himself would blush at.

James captured that mouth with his own, sweeping his tongue along the full, bottom curve before delivering a quick nip. Q tasted as sinful as the sounds he made and it was driving his inner alpha crazy as their mouths opened against each other. His beautiful omega was melting under the attack of licks and nips, allowing James to dominate the kiss entirely. Soft keening whines escaped Q’s mouth every time James drew back teasingly for a second, only for him to swoop back down to resume the process of creating a submissive puddle out of the omega. 

“So perfect like this,” James purred, pulling his mouth away from Q’s to continue a trail down along Q’s jaw despite the other’s whimpers of protest. “Could keep you like this all day.”

“Please, James,” Q whined, making James smirk smugly into the sharp underneath of the omega’s jawline. 

“Please what?” James’ grinned, nipping sharply at the fleshy lode of Q’s ear.

“Oh god!” Q moaned, panting. “Just do something!”

Chuckling, James ducked his head down further to follow the curve of Q’s neck with open mouthed kisses. Q groaned a frustrated note that pulled James’ lips up at the corners. Sitting back on his knees, James took a moment to look at the body beneath him. The picture of the flushed and annoyed omega, pulled out taunt by the cuffs securing his wrists to the headboard above his head was an arousing image. Taking him in, James licked his lips and watched as Q’s eyes dilated further in response. 

Q’s tried to buck up into him, but James pinned his hips to the bed by two hands. A whine rose from the others mouth causing James to chuckle.

“Give me a moment, love. As much as I’d like to fuck you with my clothes still on, they’ll only complicate things further in the long run.” James smirked, quirking an eyebrow when the omega sat forward eagerly to reach for James only to be yanked back by the cuffs. The growl that followed was nearly too cute for words and James couldn’t help the fond smile from appearing on his lips.

Q growled. “Fucking cuffs.” 

Leaning forward, James stole another heated kiss as his fingers began to undo the buttons of his shirt. Breaking away, James grinned, “Next time you can help. For now just sit back and let me take care of you.”

Q pouted, leaving James thrown of kilter by how sexual the expression appeared on the young man in that moment. The omega closed the inch between their lips to pull James’ bottom lip between his teeth, never wavering eye contact. 

Fuck, James swore as he pulled away from the contact to hastily discard his shirt, trousers, and pants in one go. He was back on Q in a matter of seconds, greedily claiming the omega’s mouth in a rough kiss. Q groaned and arched up into the contact happily. Feeling every sharp angle and dip of the omega against his skin was both heaven and hell. Q’s body was burning up with his impending heat now and every touch passing between their bodies as James moved above him was torture.

James brought a hand up to tease at a pebbled nipple, grinning into the kiss when Q’s bowed up in the touch and whimpered. He rolled and teased it between his fingers for a moment before crossing across the omega’s chests and giving the other one the same treatment. Meanwhile, Q was panting and whimpering aloud as James worked his way down Q’s neck and chest with open mouth kisses. 

“Please,” he begged.

Grinning, James nipped lightly at the neglected flesh directly below Q’s navel, just above the place where the omega really wanted it. “Someone once told me that patience was a virtue,” James murmured, teeth drifting to nip at the sharp jut of Q’s left hip bone.

“Shit,” Q whined, hips bucking forward only to be held in place a moment later by strong hands. “Fuck patience and get on with it, Bond.”

Never one to disappoint a lover, Bond gave Q a coy look through thick lashes before both taking the omega into his mouth and slipping a finger into his wet entrance in one quick movement. Beneath him, Q’s body shot up like a bow in response to the sudden pleasure with a breathless scream. Bond grinned around the omega’s member, pulling off with a pop as soon as the boy’s body came back down. 

“Want me to stop?” He teased, knowing that was the last thing either of them wanted at this point.

Q’s head shook frantically from side to side, dark curls tossing wildly about the white pillow beneath him. Bond chuckled at the sight, thrusting his finger in and out of the wet hole lazily. 

“Hm? I didn’t catch that.”

Q moaned desperately, arching into his touch like he was starved for it and James was finding it harder and harder to keep his own arousal in check. It was taking all his strength and stubborn will to keep himself from removing his finger and thrusting straight into the willing body beneath his. He only kept himself from doing so because of the boy’s earlier words. This was his first time and James didn’t want to leave him with only memories of pain. 

“D-Don’t stop,” Q whimpered and James couldn’t stop himself from slipping up his lover’s body to kiss those swollen lips sweetly. 

“Sh,” James gentled, slipping another finger in alongside the first. “I’ll take care of you.”

James spent the next few minutes scissoring Q open slowly, kissing away the soft whines that fell from the omega’s mouth every few seconds. It was a sweetness that he didn’t expect to find himself capable of in the midst of a heat and the intimacy of it brought a slowly building warmth to his chest. He wanted this in his life and James wanted it with this omega. As he slipped out his three fingers from Q’s hole, James silently vowed that when he got out of this room and back to his life, he’d be tracking down his omega to bring home. 

“James,” Q whined, arching off the bed in need of more.

Shushing Q’s cries with another kiss, James lined himself up and thrust in, losing himself in his chosen omega’s heat.


	3. Chapter Three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I mention I've never written smut before? Sorry I teased last chapter, here's more to make up for that. 
> 
> Also thank you for all the well wishes and welcome backs I got in the comments last chapter! You all are lovely and why I continue writing!

The hazy memories of heat, Q expected. Everything was a sensational blur of hot need and overwhelming urges that blended together into one continuous session of desperate fucking. He couldn’t keep track of how many times James knotted him, just that they were marked by occasional bouts of respite where he felt somewhat like himself before he was thrown back into the haze of pheromones once again. That was fine with him though, he much preferred the clarity of mind that came between each rut with James.

James was a surprisingly attentive and gentle alpha. In moments that found them knotted together, the large alpha would lay behind Q and pull him into the curve of his body. Q liked it, being held securely in a warm embrace that was as equally protective as it was possessive. He liked remembering it clearly even better. If he couldn’t remember anything else, Q would be happy to be able to keep those moments forever. To be able to recall the sweet words James murmured into Q’s ear as his cock twitched and released waves of his seed into Q. To remember the hitch in the alpha’s breathing as he did so. To feel the glide of calloused fingers over his hips that turned into firm grips every time the alpha came. 

He entertained- foolishly he might add- seeing James outside of the facility and his heat. James would join him for his next heat, they bond then too- James would bite deep into that special place at the base of his neck and mark Q as being forever his. One day he’d grow round with James’ pups, they’d rent some family sized flat in London, and lead perfectly horrid domestic lives. With James it didn’t sound nearly as damning as it might have otherwise.

The warm press of lips at the base of his neck tugged Q from his musing and he hummed contently as he wiggled further back into the alpha’s warm embrace. James’s chest rumbled with his deep chuckles, but he still tightened his hold around Q’s waist. 

“Never pictured you to be the cuddly type.” James’ breath ghosted over the back of Q’s shoulders as the alpha continued tasting the skin along his back. Q snorted even as he arched his spine to give James more skin to mark.

“I could say the same thing.”

James chuckled and delivered Q’s pale skin a gentle nip before pulling back. “Your scent is clearing.”

His voice was soft and serious as he tightened his hold around Q’s waist. Q denied to comment back as he stilled in James’ hold. He wanted to believe that James held onto him because he wanted to keep him- that the alpha wasn’t just going to abandon him once the wardens came in to finally separate them- and they would be coming soon. Q wasn’t clueless, he could feel the hormones in his body finally settling and easing into something tamer to the rampant ups and downs of a heat, just as much as James could smell them. It marked the end of these few days of pleasure and companionship, much of which Q couldn’t even remember clearly. 

Turning his head over to look at the alpha’s blue eyes, Q gave a tired smile. “I seem to find myself wanting to say it’s about time.”

James grinned deviously, sending a delicious shiver up Q’s spine. “Oh, I think you might have one more round in you yet, beautiful.”

Q gasped as hands found themselves wrapped around his cock, pulling at it slowly in a successful attempt to reawaken his arousal. James’ chuckle nearly short circuited his brain as his hips began to buck into the torturous friction. 

“Mm… James,” Q moaned, arching into the alpha’s touch. 

“You make the most gorgeous sounds, beautiful,” James whispered into Q’s ear, making Q flush. “I don’t want to go a day without hearing them.”

It sounded like a promise, one that had Q melting on the inside. Sex had been a largely unexplored notion before. Not that he had been without options to do so, there had been plenty of offers over the years even as a beta, just none that he had taken up. Q just simply didn’t have the time or need to bother with them. Sex just for the sake of sex had been unappealing at best and downright disgusting at worst. With James though, he could picture it being different. Q still couldn’t decide if that was the heat talking or something more.

A finger slipping into his abused hole jolted him from his thoughts.

“Mmm, thought I had lost you there for a second,” James chuckled, thrusting his finger in and out leisurely.

Q whined and pushed back against the intrusion. That finger and its companions had been inside him far too many times to count in the past few days, but Q was not going to complain about their continued exploration. Especially when they unerringly managed to find that one spot in him that made see stars.

“James,” Q panted, torn between thrusting forward into the hand working over his cock or the finger pressing against his sweet spot. “Stop teasing.”

The alpha behind him rumbled, rubbing three days’ old stubble against the back of his neck- and if that just didn’t do anything for him. “Hmm?”

“Please,” Q gasped as two more fingers joined the first, scissoring him open easily.

James groaned lowly and suddenly Q found himself on his back with the blonde alpha hovering over him. A squeal escaped Q’s mouth, before it was cut short by James’ lips descending on his in a slow lingering kiss. Oh, and that was perfectly alright with him.

Appeased, Q melted into the hot touch, allowing James to dictate the pace. James seemed happy to keep his mouth busy with his own, while the hand that had been on Q’s cock moved to slide up the omega’s side to pull Q’s hips closer to his own. Q whined softly at the touch, feeling James’ answering smirk as he leisurely thrust down against Q. 

It was all he did for the moment and Q was content with the slow build up. He could still feel the last of his heat clinging to him, effecting their rutting in the slight stuttering of Q’s hips when the need started to rise up again. It was still mild enough though that he could control it without didn’t needing to encouraging his alpha to speed up. 

His alpha.

The thought brought Q’s hazed mind to a startling clarity, because no that was not a thought he could afford to be having. Fantasizing that this relation could continue outside their time here was one thing, but Q knew that they were just that- a fantasy. James and him were just a one off thing, brought together by the unfortunate rules of their government. Q could not allow himself to get attached, but even as he berated himself not to, he knew it was probably to late. Looking into the pleased, half lidded expression of James’ face, Q knew he was royally fucked. His omega wanted this alpha, and so did he.

“Ssh, I’ve got you.”

James’ gentle voice brought him back to the present and Q blinked up at the alpha, aware that his distress was bleeding through enough for the alpha to notice. The soft concerned look on his beautiful face had Q failing to chock back tears, which were quickly wiped away by the rough pad of James’ thumb. 

Q whimpered and didn’t resist the pull of his instincts to bury his head into the crook of his alpha’s neck. Everything still around him and, for a moment, Q was afraid this was when James would pull away. That he’d realize Q was getting far too attached for his own good. 

Instead, Q found himself being held closer as the alpha wrapped him up in a tight embrace. “We don’t have to continue if you don’t want to. We can stop right now and wait till the wardens come, if that’s what you want.”

Q was sure he imagined the way James’ words cracked at the last words, because it was only in his wishful thinking that James wanted him outside of the heat. If he was smart and wanted to save himself from heartbreak, Q would do the right thing and take James’ offer up. The less attached he was in the end, the easier it would be when James did leave.

Instead, Q clutched James closer and whimpered, “No, please.”

It was how he ended up back on his back with the alpha thrusting in and out of him at a lingering pace. Q’s breath hitched at each drag of James’ cock in and out of him, wrapping his limbs around the man to keep him as close as possible. He wanted everything James could give him, even this slow torture that was going to tear him apart once it ended. Q could accept that, because at the moment he was allowed to believe that James wanted this just as much as he did. That this wasn’t heat fucking, but a pair making love.

James’ led him to his end with a slowly building crescendo that ended up a final tug on his cock. He felt James follow a few thrust later. In his haze it took him a moment to realize that something was missing. 

There was no knot. 

His heat was over.

The thought was punctured by the opening of the door.


	4. Chapter Four

Everything that happened next was a blur. One minute Q was covered by a limp, satisfied alpha, the next said alpha was crouched defensively beside him growling at the door. He didn’t even have time to appreciate the sight, before it was taken away from him. 

The wardens were not dumb, this time they came prepared. Six burly betas streamed into their room ignoring the angry alpha like this was an every day occurrence for them. In all honestly, it probably was. Two distracted James, while the other four snuck around behind him and caught him in the neck with a serious looking needle when he went to lunge at the first two. He went down like a log the moment they depressed whatever tranquilizer was in it, leaving Q too stunned to do anything more than struggle to sit upright. 

Only once they were sure James was completely incapacitated did they approach him. Q watched silently as five of the wardens gathered the limp alpha up and expertly hauled him from the room. The whole thing took less than ten minutes and was so completely unlike the theatrics that had been James’ entrance days earlier. 

A hand on his arm reminded him of the other warden still in the room with him. Q jolted away from the touch, earning himself a small smile from the beta. He nearly growled back, because he didn’t need any sympathy from the same people who put him in this situation in the first place, when a metallic click resounded in the room. It was only when the warden grabbed his arms and lowered them to his sides that Q remembered the cuffs that had bound him over the past couple of days. 

“Your arms will probably feel a bit tingly for the next half hour, that’s just the blood reorienting itself into your arms. It’s perfectly normal,” the beta explained kindly. “They might be sore for the next day or so as well, after we get you checked over by the doctor we’ll prescribe something for it in case it gets to be too much. Usually a tablet of paracetamol will clear it up just fine though.”

Q bit back a snarl. He wouldn’t be dealing with any of this if it hadn’t been for them in the first place. Fighting them though wasn’t going to get him out any faster and Q really just wanted to leave as soon as possible. He wanted to get home and curl up in his own bed, where everything smelled like home and safety, not antiseptics. Then he could forget this all happened that much faster.

He was fooling himself though if he believed he’d ever be able to forget about James.

“Come on, up you go.”

Q allowed himself to be gently pulled upright by the warden, who quickly caught him when his legs protested their sudden reintroduction to gravity. 

The warden chuckled as he wrapped an arm around Q’s waist. “Don’t worry all of this is normal. You’ll be right as rain in a few hours.”

In a few hours, like that promise meant anything from one of them. If he’d been home he would have been fine. He would not be currently clinging onto a stranger who held him captive for five days or stuck thinking about blonde hair and blue eyes. And he certainly wouldn’t be feeling his heart shattering as he was carried away from the last lingering scent of alpha and home.

The whimper that left his lips was involuntary and the warden mistook it for pain, because the next thing he knew, Q was swept up into the beta’s arms and being carried down the stark hallways. For once he didn’t care. He just wanted to go home.

“The doctor will be with you in just a minute,” the beta promised, setting him down with care on a cold examination table. “If you feel any discomfort or pain, let her know.”

Q watched blankly as the beta backed out of the room and left him in silence. His body itched to curl up into itself and rest, while his instincts were screaming to pull him in the direction they’d taken James. It would take days for the draw to die down. Everybody knew about an omega’s attachment to the alpha they share their heat with. It was the instinctual need to solidify a bond so that their pups and them would be permanently taken care by a strong, providing alpha. Even though no choices had really been involved in the situation, didn’t mean that his inner omega felt any different about James. It recognized him as a good match and Q would just have to deal with the repercussions until his omega realized a bond wasn’t going to happen.

James however would be able to walk away easily from this. No baggage attached. 

Lucky bastard.

The door opened and a petite, female beta stepped in. She smiled pleasantly at Q as she set down a clipboard on the counter.

“Well then, Mr. -“

“Q.”

“Pardon me?” She blinked dumbly.

Q barely refrained from rolling his eyes. “I prefer the name Q.” 

She seemed to process that information for a moment, before she smiled warmly. It was a smile Q was getting tired of seeing.

“Well then, Q, let’s get you checked over so that you can go home. Your guardian is waiting for you in the lobby and we shouldn’t keep her waiting.”

Q’s heart jack rabbited as the word sunk in. “Guardian…?”

The beta smiled, reaching for his wrist to take his pulse. “Yes, we can’t have an unbonded omega going home alone, now could we? You need a guardian to keep you safe.”

Safe? The word made him sick as he realized that his nightmare had only just begun a few days ago. He wasn’t a free man anymore. Being a beta had awarded him the freedom to do whatever he wanted, to make his own choices. He didn’t have to worry about society’s demands of him and alphas didn’t focus their attention on the boffin beta walking down the street. Omegas, they were prisons of first their parents and then their alphas. 

“Are you feeling well?” 

Q tried to regulate his breathing as he met the beta’s concerned expression. She was hovering over him with fluttery movements as if she didn’t realize the bomb she dropped on him. He was expected to go home with a guardian, because someone else had to be charged with his care now-

-Oh shit.

Now Q really was hyperventilating as he curled over his body, trying to prevent the panic he could feel creeping up over his chest. Shit, he couldn’t go back there. He’d done everything he could to get away from there. A change in status was not going to force him back now.

“Hush, it’s going to be alright. Deep breaths,” a voice reminded him calmly, bringing him back slowly. Q blinked at the beta’s face slowly, trying to force himself to focus even though a large portion of his brain was triggering his flight responses.

“There you are, see everything’s okay?” She smiled again, running a hand up and down his back.

Q tried not to shudder, but he felt his body betray him slightly and the doctor’s eyes pinched with more concern. She asked something, but the words were lost in the ringing in his ears. Whatever it was, she seemed even more resilient to follow through with the rest of the exam, because her hands were suddenly prodding away at every inch of his skin- lifting his limbs this way and that to check for bruises or cuts. She wasn’t going to find any, James wasn’t that kind of alpha.

She frowned as she released him, stepping back. “Everything seems to be fine, but you-.”

“I’m fine,” Q snapped, ‘you’ve only just signed my life away’ he wanted to add but didn’t.

She nodded and reached into the cupboards beneath the counter, pulling out a pair of grey sweats and a tee shirt. She handed them over to him with another concerned look. 

“Please put these on and then knock on the door, a warden will escort you to the lobby where your guardian is waiting with your things,” she recited sadly, pausing at the end to give him one last look. “If you are in any sort of pain, please let me know.”

“I’m not.”

She nodded once more and wordlessly left, shutting the door behind her. Q stood for a moment with the clothes clutched in his fist before he began putting them on. He focused more attention on the task then was truly needed in an attempt to keep his mind off of the inevitable. The more he let himself think about it the worse his panic was going to get. If he had a panic attack here, they’d likely end up dragging him to a real hospital, where he’d have to face his nightmare head on.

Swallowing, Q adjusted the sweats before knocking on the door. Not a moment passed before a beta warden opened the door and gestured him to follow quietly. Q tried not to shuffle too much as they wound their way through the maze of hallways to the front, where the outside world waited. 

The lobby wasn’t what he expected. Unlike the cold starkness of the back, where the heat rooms were, the front of the center was a cheery yellow color with large framed watercolor landscapes and a dozen or so waiting chairs. It looked like the generic doctor’s office, and wasn’t that going to put him off of going to his doctor, not the place where poor omegas were dragged through to be given over to some random alpha for their heat. 

Distracted by the room decor, Q almost didn’t notice the person standing by the front desk until they were speaking. 

“You look like hell, Q.”

Startled, Q whipped his head around to an unexpected, but entirely welcome face. “Moneypenny?!”

Later Q would deny that he all but threw himself at Eve and buried his face in her neck to breath in the comforting scent of lemongrass and honey. Alpha. He took a few shuddering breaths, trying to hold himself together as the fear he’d initially felt drained away slowly. Eve, the gorgeous girl she was, knew without being told that he just needed a moment and simply wrapped her arms around him in a tight hug. 

“I’ve got you now,” she promised in a voice so quiet only he’d be able to hear it. Louder, she addressed whoever was standing behind Q. “I’ll be taking him home now, if that’s alright?”

Q stiffened initially at the mention of home, but Eve tightened her grip on his arm and Q allowed himself to be grounded by the action. This was Moneypenny and she wouldn’t do that to him. If she was here, then he didn’t know where Q was and more importantly didn’t know what he was.

“Of course you may, just remember to keep a close eye on him for the next couple of hours. He is still recovering from a long heat and there may be some lingering weakness from that.”

Moneypenny nodded and pulled herself out of Q’s grasp, but didn’t stray too far. The arms that had been holding him slide to his waist and held firm, there to comfort and steady him. And did Q ever say how much he loved this woman? 

“Alright, we’ll be taking our leave now, then. Have a good day.”

Moneypenny’s face was stretched into one of her fake grins as she led Q from the office and, once they were outside into the world once more, it dropped away. Her expression was all sorts of flat as she gestured Q into the waiting white Mercedes sitting by the curb.

“I’d like to gut them someday,” Eve swore as soon as she was sitting in the driver’s seat. Her eyes screamed murder and Q took comfort in the fact that it wasn’t directed at him.

Q sighed, “It’s alrig-.”

“Don’t. Don’t even start with me, Q,” Eve growled. “It’s not alright what they did! Just tell me that you are okay, or else I’m going to go back there and demand they give me the alpha’s information so I can hunt down the old bastard and kill him myself.”

“He wasn’t like that,” Q snapped, surprising even himself into silence. He spared Eve a glance to see her wide-eyed shock, before he continued calmly, “James wasn’t like that, he didn’t want to be in there either so we made the best of it. I’m fine really.”

Moneypenny still looked skeptical, which was fair, what alpha didn’t want an omega in heat, but she sighed and nodded. “Alright, but I’m only conceding this once because you’ve been through a week of trauma.”

Q threw his head back and groaned. “I’m not an invalid!”

“If I say you are, you are,” she cackled. “And invalids get tea on me.”

Q perked up.


	5. Chapter Five

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just saw Spectre and yes it was fantastic in my opinion. More Q and Moneypenny screen time- the lovelies! Also sass, so much sass! And cats for Q! 
> 
> So TWO new chapters for you guys, because I'm warmed up from writing another novel for nanowrimo and because seeing Spectre put me in a 00Q mood.

Eve’s apartment was the world’s worst collection of souvenir buys that somehow went right. The end tables were made of driftwood pieces from Maine, the porcelain china from Russia, the granite counter tops from outside Rome, the lamps scatter throughout from India and Morocco, the couches from Paris, the artwork from various countries, and that was to just name a few of the extensive collection. Even though it shouldn’t, it all somehow meshed together well. All the pieces coming together with a unity that boggled Q’s mind. In theory none of it should have worked together, but it did. Knowing Eve she probably charmed them all into submission. Only the tacky set of glass birds, Moneypenny claimed a co-worker bought for her as a joke, didn’t. Q asked once about it and Eve just joked that they were like him in that regard- stubborn. 

Even her tea set wasn’t English in origin, a blasphemy Q wasn’t going to address while he was sipping at perhaps the best cup of tea he’d had in days. 

“So tell me, what are your plans now?” Moneypenny asked as she settled on the ottoman crosslegged across from him, her own cup of tea clutched in both her hands. 

Q sighed, “Go back to life as I knew it.”

He knew it was a spectacularly bad idea before Eve even gave him her signature, you’re an idiot look. Being an omega changed everything for him even if he managed to keep certain parties from that knowledge, which would require a series of long hours spent breaking firewalls and changing official government data. Still he wouldn’t be able to walk down the streets without everyone knowing what he was and that was dangerous, but there were ways to hide himself. Not very legal ways, but he never tended to walk on that side of life anyway.

“I’ll get in contact with a few of my connections, see if I can find someone who is willing to sell suppressers. It shouldn’t be too hard to black mail the right person into giving me what I want,” Q explained calmly, even as Eve was narrowing her dark eyes.

“That’s a spectacularly dumb idea and you know it.”

Q shrugged, which only served to irk her more.

“And what happens when they rat you out? Are you ready to be dragged back there?”

Q flinched.

Moneypenny sighed softly. “Look, Q. If you are going to do this, I’m going to help.”

Q jerked upright. “No.”

“Yes,” she said with finality. “I’m not going to let you do this alone. If you are going to go about this illegally then I’m going to be right there along with you.”

“I can’t let you do that,” Q grumbled, even as Moneypenny glared across at him.

It was one thing to be an omega hiding yourself, a beta or alpha hiding an omega was a whole other level of prosecution. If caught, Moneypenny wouldn’t just be facing a slap on the wrist and a fine. There would actually be real jail time involved. Q couldn’t ask her to get involved, not when her whole life was on the line.

“Doesn’t matter, I’m doing it. You truly aren’t one of the greatest minds England has seen in the past decade if you can’t figured out that I’m not letting you near one of those drug dealers. We’re doing this my way or not at all.”

Eve’s glare was deadly and Q tried to match it miserably. It felt like trying to out rank an angry mother when you were the unruly child. It just wasn’t going to end well for him. He held his own for maybe a moment, before his eyes drifted to the floor in submission.

Moneypenny smirked. “See, now that wasn’t so hard, now was it? Besides who said I was going to go near one either?”

Q arched a brow. “How else are you planning on getting suppressants?”

Her answering grin was equal parts mischievous, charming, and dangerous. Q shivered in his spot, God help the poor sod who ended up with her as their alpha. 

“Oh, I have my ways.”

He wanted to ask, but something told him really didn’t want to know either. Moneypenny claimed she worked as a legal assistant for Universal Exports. Q had bought if for about ten minutes before he tried to do a little digging and found himself blocked out at every turn. Universal Exports had an oddly secure server with enough firewalls to keep out the curious few hackers. Back then Q had only been at a quarter of his skills and still going by his birth name- not what he thought to be an ironic codename of Quartermaster, simply Q for short among close friends and the tight knit world of the elite hackers. He hadn’t gotten too far into their systems before realizing that he’d need to be better in order to not get caught by whatever superpower laid behind the facade of a corporate trade company. He could do it now, but Q really didn’t need to know anymore. Eve was a loyal friend and sometimes a bit of secrets between friends was for the best.

Q still wandered if perhaps her job had connections to her way of getting a hold of suppressants.

“So, I know you said you probably don’t want to talk about it, but I need to know what happened in there,” Moneypenny asked, though it sounded more like a demand.

“It was a heat.” Q shrugged, as if that was answer enough. It should have been, heat meant sex and a lot of it. Almost everyone knew that.

Eve snorted and rolled her eyes. “You said his name was James, did that come with a last name?”

“No,” Q lied. He wanted to keep that to himself. James Bond would forever remain Q’s secret.

Eve frowned, but if she didn’t believe him, she let it go. “Old or young?”

“Older, but not one of the wrinkly, old bastards you’d expect,” Q scowled at his empty cup, Moneypenny laughing fondly as she leaned over to take it. “He had at least fifteen or so years on me.”

Eve banged something in the kitchen, possibly a cup against the countertop. “Pig. At least tell me he was an attractive bastard.”

Q had to force a rather explicit image of James from his mind, blushing madly. “Incontrovertibly.” 

Eve came back around the couch holding his refilled cup in hand. She held it out to him with an eyebrow raised skeptically. 

“That attractive?”

Q nodded, blushing again. Eve laughed at the sight, her smile downright mischievous as she stared at the splotchy, red coloring on his face.

“Hmm, describe him to me,” she demanded. “Not all of us were lucky enough to have a nice roll in the hay with a beautiful partner this week.”

Q groaned. “Blonde, blue eyes. Alpha. Had an arse that would make anyone with eyes jealous.”

“Mm, Q you lucky boy, you. Sounds like a dream man,” Eve smacked her lips lewdly, forcing Q to scrunch his face up in distaste. “Will you be seeing him again then?”

Q’s heart ached at the question. He wanted that so badly, but even if James had wanted it they weren’t given a chance. The facility had made sure of that. It was probably for the best they didn’t anyway. Q had dreams he wanted to accomplish and James probably had his own as well. Together they would have had to give all that up in order to settle down into a bond.

Q shook his head and Moneypenny, in that way of hers, knew exactly where his mind went and what to do. Instead of asking why not, she simply got up and placed herself next to him before grabbing the television remote and turning it on. 

“Well tonight, why don’t we just focus on getting you all settled? Tomorrow we’ll talk about our game plan and I’ll begin the process to get your suppressants. By the end of next week you should be back in your lectures and this will all be like it never happened. You’ll be beta Q once again. A brilliant hacker with that adorable geek thing going.”

“Moneypenny!” Q started in outrage, but she placed a finger on his lip to hush him.

“Ssh, you know it’s true,” she smiled. “So what shall we watch? A film or one of those trashy realities?” 

Q pretended to pout, even as he settled further into the couch and Moneypenny’s embrace. Sometimes it just felt good to be cuddled. The alpha scent helped too, even if it wasn’t the one he really wanted. He would never admit that out-loud, but his inner omega was crying to be coddled by a strong, providing alpha. It craved that safety and security, even if it had picked another. Moneypenny was a good enough substitution for it at the moment and Q nuzzled into her neck, breathing in her scent deeply and feeling himself relax.


	6. Chapter Six

True to her word, Eve had Q back to his normal schedule in a week, full beta once more. At first he had tried to find comfort in his old schedule, going to classes and coming back to his apartment one floor below Eve’s to work late hours developing software only he could crack. It should have been enough. He should not have kept finding himself thinking of what happened at the facility or of his moments with James. Q shouldn’t have found himself missing the alpha’s presence beside him in bed or in his life. Christ, he hadn’t even known the man that long. Five days shouldn’t have been enough to get him so attached to him.

In one night of desperation and perhaps a bit too much of the good scotch Eve had given to him for a birthday present, Q had done his research on the alpha. He hadn’t dug too deep, Q had been too intoxicated for any hardcore digging that involved skills with codes and hacking. He simply dug through Facebook and social media, trying to find a James Bond that was his James. It hadn’t turned up anything and Q had spent the rest of the night wallowing in self pity over what had become his life.

To make matters worse, three weeks later Q began noticing a change in the people around him. It started out small, with alphas being more attentive to him. Holding doors open when he walked by or offering the hold anything heavy. He had brushed it off as the effects of his upcoming heat which should have been due in another week or so. His suppressants were surprisingly strong, Moneypenny had done more than she promised when she followed through, getting him a brand that was strictly used by the government for special cases. They nullified all traces of omega from his scent, however heat pheromones might have been too much for them. At least that’s what he told himself to make sense of it all. However, when that time passed with no traces of any sort of heat, even a suppressed one, Q started to worry.

And the actions only started to get more alarming.

The day an alpha in his English lecture had brought Q a full thermos of English Breakfast and a muffin, looking as proud of himself as if he had just brought Q the crown jewels, was the day Q knew something else was wrong. Something seriously wrong. Taking one look at the offered goods, Q had packed up his things and bolted from the lecture hall as if the hounds of hell were at his heels. He avoided the tube when he noticed the lingering stares he was getting from every alpha he passed by and walked the full twelve blocks, phoning Moneypenny the moment he reached the elevator. She met him two minutes later at the door of her flat looking worried when he pushed past her to get inside.

“Q, is everything alright?” Moneypenny asked, after she let him pace the span of her living room for a good fifteen minutes.

“I don’t know,” he whispered.

“What?”

“I don’t know!” He shouted, stopping his pacing to stare at Eve with wide eyes. “I don’t know. I just got offered breakfast from an alpha I haven’t even said two words to! My heat hasn’t come and alphas everywhere are being a bit too friendly. I’ve been practically prepositioned at every place I’ve stopped at in the past three days!”

“Wait, Q. Slow down and would you mind repeating that once again? More slowly this time.” Eve asked, taking a seat on the armchair. Her eyes were worried, but the rest of her expression was carefully blank as she looked across the room at him.

Taking a deep breath Q began again, only for Moneypenny to stop him with a raised hand. “No, before the alpha’s bit.”

Cocking his head to the side, Q restated, “My heat hasn’t come?”

Eve’s expression was mildly alarmed and that was enough to make Q anxious. 

“Eve, what’s wrong?”

She took a deep breath, looking at him evenly. “Q, did you read the labeling on the bottle?”

“Of course I did, I’m not an idiot,” Q snarked. “I should of had at least a mild one by now. At least felt like I needed to get out of my skin, even though outwardly no one would have registered anything. Which brings me to the point of why all those alphas are paying me attention? If these suppressants are working than why am I being courted everywhere I go?”

Moneypenny didn’t answer and in the next moment she was getting up and exiting the room, heading back towards her bedroom. Q stared after her, blinking in shock. He had never felt so dismissed in his life. Here he was having a mental breakdown and she simply walked off as if it all meant nothing to her. 

Before he could get too offend, she came back around the corner and into the living room. She was holding something small clutched in both her hands. Her expression was thoughtful and hesitant, as if she wasn’t sure if she should even propose what she had on mind, even though Q would find any idea useful at this point.

Stopping, Moneypenny bit her lip and held out the object towards Q. Taking a long look at her face, Q slid his gaze down towards it. 

By anything he should have amended himself and said he meant anything except that.

“No. That’s not possible,” Q protested, chocking on his own spit. “I can’t be, it’s statistically impossible.”

He looked once more at the small white stick in her hand, the blood draining further from his face.

“Q, it’s the only thing that makes sense now.” Moneypenny sighed, “Look, you don’t have to believe me, but at least take the damn thing and prove me wrong.”

He wanted to fight a bit more and shove the stick right back at her. There was no way he was pregnant. First heats weren’t fertile, he couldn’t possibly be carrying a pup. Carrying James’ pup. Nope, this was all a misunderstanding. He was just reacting to the suppressants and would need to research into finding an alternate method of hiding himself.

Because there was no way he was pregnant.

Except it made far too much sense. The lack of heat, his need to find James even though his heat attachment should have faded away by now, and more importantly the way alphas around him were subconsciously displaying courting behavior. An unbonded, pregnant omega was like candy to them. They’d be unable to resist the draw of a fertile display like that and their instincts would scream at them to claim and protect. To provide for. Even the strongest suppressants wouldn’t be able to hide that from them.

Swallowing, Q reached out hesitantly and took the pregnancy test from Eve’s hand. She smiled softly as he played with it hesitatingly in his hands.

“You can use my bathroom, I’ll be out here.”

She turned and walked towards the kitchen, probably to make them tea. He’d need it, if this ended up being positive. That and an evenings worth of tissues and a sappy movie that he could claim made him cry. 

Taking the stick, he made his way into Eve’s bathroom to do the deed. The entire time he tried not to think about what any of it meant. That would just break the rest of his sanity and he rather needed as much as he could get at the moment.

Placing the used stick on the counter, he stared at his reflection as he waited for the inevitable. He was as pale as usual, no glow in his cheeks or anything. So maybe that was a sign. Maybe this was all a fluke. He’d look down at the stick and see a little blue line and be free to go about his day. It would be a small miracle and he’d only have to find another way to hide his true second gender from the world. This would all just turn out to be one big mistake.

A knock on the door startled Q and he looked away from his reflection.

“Q, are you decent?” Moneypenny called through the door. When Q didn’t answer, she pushed her away in and took one look at his frightened form before drawing him into a hug. “Oh, Q.”

He sniffled and buried his face into her neck, breathing in the scent of lemongrass and honey. The ball in his chest came undone after a moment, but Q lingered there because it meant he didn’t have to face the truth and look at the result.

“Have you looked yet?” She asked softly, patting his head soothingly.

Q shook his head, squeezing his eyes tight. 

She sighed, moving to pull away, only Q held onto her tighter. 

“Come on. You’ll have to look sometime.”

Sighing, Q took a moment before he nodded and began to pull away. He met Eve’s gaze first, letting the warmth he found in her brown eyes ground him before he turned to pick up the small stick. Ironic that such a small thing could hold his fate at this point. Breathing in deeply to calm himself as much as he could, Q followed the line to the little screen were the results showed. 

He chocked when the little pink plus glared up at him.

An hour later he was still clutching the stick tightly in his fist, the little pink plus mocking him. Moneypenny sat on the couch across from him with a mug of tea in her hands. She wasn’t saying anything at this point. All her words had been said earlier and none of them had done any good, because…. Christ, he was pregnant. He was going to have a pup. James’ pup. He’d have to stop taking suppressants as soon as possible and god, he hoped he hadn’t done an irreparable damage at this point in time. He’d been pregnant for five weeks now assuming he’d conceived at the end of his heat and not on the first day, because then he was looking at six weeks. Shit, the things he’d done over that time. 

Suddenly, Q felt like the worst human in the world, because he could have done so much damage to his pup and not even have known it. The suppressants, caffeine, even the alcohol. He’d been living a rather reckless life over the past month and a half, and the entire time he’d been putting another life at risk. Q was a horrible person.

He hadn’t realized he’d started crying until Eve’s face was swimming into his blurred vision. She was rubbing circles into his shoulders, trying to get him to calm down.

“Ssh, Q. It’s alright everything is going to be okay, you’ll get through this.”

He shook his head and tried to tell her that it wasn’t himself that he was worried about, but about his unborn pup. The person he might have unintentionally hurt because of his own stupidity.

“Hey, quit it! You cannot blame yourself for that,” she scolded, because somehow he managed to get enough into words that she got the gist of it. “You couldn’t have known and wallowing in the past isn’t going to help you or the pup. So suck it up and this is what we’re going to do.”

Q bit his lip and tried to get a grip on himself as he listened to Moneypenny lay out a plan. It involved stopping the suppressants right away, which he had planned on doing anyway because he was not an idiot thank you very much, and going to see a doctor right away. Obviously that couldn’t be a normal doctor, what with him trying to keep his status hidden, but Eve had a solution for that too. Apparently her job also supplied discreet medical care, where she was sure she could pull a few strings to get him in without anyone being any wiser. 

Once she was done covering the basics and Q was slightly calmer, she left him to go make a few calls to see if she could get him into an appointment tomorrow. As soon as she was gone, Q placed his hands on his flat stomach, trying to picture what it would look like in a few months. It didn’t stick and Q simply rubbed his stomach with a newfound fondness.

“I hope you are more sure about this than I am,” he mumbled to it, imagining the pup growing inside him could hear him and understand.

Moneypenny returned with a smile then, sitting down next to him. 

“Good news is that they’ll take you in tomorrow. I told them you were a family member that got into a spot of trouble and needed this to be discreet. They won’t ask many questions and you can trust them,” she promised. Her face was earnest and Q believed her, even though Universal Exports might be a giant pile of shit, Moneypenny obviously had connections she trusted and Q trusted her enough to trust them with his and his pup’s care.

“The real question now, Q, is whether or not you’re going to find an alpha to support you and your pup. And do you want that to be James.”


	7. Chapter Seven

“You’ve got to be joking.”

Q was starting to question his association with Moneypenny, because this was ridiculous. When she said the whole thing would be discreet, he pictured a charming, little facility tucked away in an office somewhere in the midst of the London sprawl. Perhaps some place that even catered to the rich and famous of the city, those who had medical issues that they might want to hide from the public eye. What he had not pictured was the black sack Moneypenny was currently holding out to him with an expectant look.

“No,” Q said flatly, arms crossed over his chest. 

Moneypenny rolled her eyes and took a step forward. Q matched it with another step back.

“Come on, Q. It isn’t that bad,” she reassured. 

“Not that bad? Not that bad?!” Q sputtered. “Not bad is forgetting to put sugar in my tea! This is starting to resemble kidnapping!”

Moneypenny snorted. “If I wanted to kidnap you, Q, I wouldn’t give you a choice.”

“I sincerely hope that wasn’t meant to be comforting,” Q deadpanned, glaring at the offending item and back to Moneypenny’s face. 

Moneypenny cocked her hip out with a pointed look. “Have I ever given you reason not to trust me before?”

“Doesn’t mean one can’t be given now,” Q shot back.

She growled lowly, rolling her eyes heavenwards and Q could see her mouth forming words without saying them. Probably asking whatever deity she believed in for patience. If Q believed in anything he’d be asking for a normal friend. Someone who didn’t think a burlap sack was an acceptable accessory when going to a prenatal check up. 

“Can’t we find a different alternative to… that?!” Q asked sharply, gesturing to the bag in her hands.

Eve shook her head with a frown. “Look Q, I wouldn’t ask this of you unless it was absolutely necessary. We both know what I do for a living is not entirely conventional,” Q snorted and Moneypenny gave him a small smile, “the only reason you don’t know everything, is because we both agreed it would get you in too much trouble if you went looking. So all I ask is that you trust me enough to follow my lead.”

Q stayed quiet, debating internally with himself the pros and cons of saying no. On one side he wouldn’t be giving his kidnapper an easy way to do so and on the other he’d have to start researching new prenatal facilities. 

“Or you could just go to a regular clinic and out yourself as an omega to the world.”

Scowling, Q narrowed his eyes at her. “Does it have to be a burlap?”

Moneypenny smiled in victory. “Well we could use a pillowcase.”

Q rubbed his flat stomach, it was starting to become an unconscious habit. “You don’t have one of those sleep blinders?” 

“Sorry, all out of those. It’s the sack or a pillowcase, your choice?” Eve folded her arms across her chest, smile still in place. She didn’t look sorry at all.

Q sighed. “I’ll take the pillowcase, please.”

“Give me a second then.”

Watching Eve bounce off to go find a replacement for the rough looking sack, Q leaned his head against the cool window and sighed. His hands found themselves running over his flat stomach. He liked to imagine it reassured his pup that everything was fine. It was hard, trying to picture that there was an actual living being in there. A living pup that was probably only the size of a pea right now. A pup that was half him and half James. He tried not to get too giddy at the thought, especially because in all likely hood the alpha would never know he even had a pup.

Q had to swallow back a whimper just as the clicking of Eve’s heels announced her arrival back into the room. Q turned to evaluate her new choice. It looked like a soft cotton pillowcase, two visible holes poked where his nose would line up so that he could breath. At least Moneypenny was considerate enough to think of that.

“Ready?”

Q closed his eyes and nodded. “As I’ll ever be, I’m afraid.”

Laughing, Moneypenny approached before he felt the soft fabric pull over his head. “It’s not so bad.”

“We couldn’t have simply used a tie or ribbon for this?”

Eve flicked his shoulder. “That would have been too easy.”

Q snorted, tensing briefly when he felt a hand wrap around his arm. Moneypenny’s familiar scent washed over him, putting him at ease was as she became a warm presence at his side guiding him out of the flat and to the elevator. 

“I imagine this makes for a rather shocking sight,” Q stated when he felt the elevator jolt to life around him and begin descending. 

Beside him, Moneypenny shifted and settled against the back wall. He could hear the smirk in her voice when she replied.

“How unfortunate for anybody should they see.”

Snorting loudly, Q barely heard the doors open before he was being usher out and into the cool parking garage. Moneypenny didn’t pause a she ushered him to her car and pushed him inside. He didn’t hear any panicked yelling, so he supposed they made it without anybody seeing them. Q almost felt upset about that, it would have been funny to see Eve try to talk her way out of this one. Also the darker part of his mind began to wonder if this was just a sign of just how easy someone could get away with kidnapping someone here. He didn’t really want to dwell on that thought.

“So should I expect government labs waiting for me? Baskerville maybe?” Q hummed.

In the driver seat Moneypenny laughed. “We don’t play well with Baskerville.”

Well if that wasn’t food for thought, Q mused.

“So no top secret test subjects?… Pity.”

Q tried to keep track of the turns they made, but lost count after the fifteenth sharp right Eve made. She was too good at confusing her tracks. Almost like she did this all the time, or at least enough to have to get good at it. Good enough that Q wasn’t even able to keep up with her path. He was beginning to wonder if perhaps he should worry about what it was she really did. Moneypenny was his friend, and he’d trust her implicitly, but there was a lot more to her then even he realized before. 

“Are we almost there?” Q asked when he felt the car rock up, before all the weight began settling backwards as if the car was going up a sharp incline.

“Where would the fun be in telling you?” Moneypenny asked playfully, taking a sharp turn.

“Fun? I didn’t know we were supposed to be having a play date,” Q quipped, trying to see anything but vague shadows beyond the cotton.

Eve laughed and the car jerked to a stop. Q sighed with relief, going to reach for the pillowcase. As soon as his hand brushed the edge though, a sharp, stinging slap had him pulling away with a hiss.

“What was that for?!”

“I didn’t say you could take that off yet,” Eve tutted.

Q’s grumble was drowned out by the sound of Eve’s car door opening and closing. He knew he was alone for a precious second before his door opened and he was yanked out from his seat by a familiar hand. Eve settled him against her side and began marching them straight forward.

“Now, follow my lead and don’t say anything until I tell you, you can,” she instructed, a chime resounding after her words and Q felt the space before them open up. He had time enough to register that they must be in a parking garage and therefor in front of the lift, before he was pulled along inside and the door shut behind them.

“So you’re not going to tell me where we are then?” Q questioned, even though he knew the answer. Just to be smart, he added, “Will I even be able to look my doctor in the face?”

“I don’t know, will you, Q?”

Q rolled his eyes even though she couldn’t see it.

The doors opened and once more Q was being dragged along forward. He could hear noises around them, shoes clicking on the floor and the constant murmur of people talking. No one approached them though, as if a person being dragged blindfolded through their office space was just a regular old Tuesday for them. Eve’s job was just getting curiouser and curiouser. 

“Moneypenny!” 

Eve stopped when a male voice called her name, Q tripping up next to her as his body tried to come to terms with the sudden stop of forward motion. Turning his head towards where he thought he heard the sound come from, he could only make out the vague shadow of the side of Moneypenny’s head beside him and an even lighter shadow where he assumed the person that approached them stood. Q tried to give a curious sniff to suss out anything else, but the cotton and Eve’s alpha scent overpowered everything.

“Who’s this?” The male asked, the shadow shifting in his vision.

Beside him, Eve laughed lightly. “Good afternoon to you too, Alec. And here I thought pleasantries were dead.”

The man, Alec, chuckled. “Forgive me, I must have forgot my manners.”

Q picked up an accent in the Alec’s voice, foreign, but he couldn’t place it completely. He scowled and shifted beside Eve, wanting to both get going and to be able to see the world around him again. 

“Well I’d better be heading to medical,” Eve sighed. “I’m afraid they don’t like when you’re late.”

Alec whistled. “Is it for him? I don’t envy you, whoever you are.”

“A friend,” Moneypenny cut in. “Someone who is mine to protect.”

Alec backed away, Q watching as his shadow faded almost completely the further he got.

“Ah, well if it’s like that,” he said. “I’ll see you later then, Eve?”

Besides him, Moneypenny straightened up. “As always, Alec.”

Alec chuckled. “Don’t let the vultures eat him alive.”

Q startled, eyes wide behind the pillowcase. He turned his head towards Eve imploringly, noting that the sight was probably very comical with the pillowcase covering his head, but he didn’t give a rat's arse about that. The hand on his arm tightened in warning, before he felt himself being dragged forward again.

“Don’t listen to him,” Eve whispered after a moment. “Alec has a terrible track record with being on the wrong side of medical.”

Q nodded as if any of that made sense to him.

A moment later another door was opened and Eve ushered him inside. This time though Q felt Eve reach over and yank the pillowcase off his head. The sudden flood of brilliant light had Q squinting until his surroundings came into focus. 

Well it wasn’t the cozy clinic he pictured.

The room looked sterile, all clean whites and blues. A white medical bed took center stage, a counter not to far from it with a sink and cabinets. A few large machines sat around, only one Q could identify as a ultrasound machine. It almost looked like a hospital exam room in its austere nature. In fact, Q was pretty sure it was a hospital room.

“You brought me to a hospital?”

Eve snorted beside him. “No. I brought you to medical.”

Q turned to arch a brow at her and she sighed before elaborating.

“Sometimes the work we do here requires a certain degree of medical care that can’t be accomplished by an on call doctor. We also require a certain level of anonymity that a general hospital couldn’t offer, so we have a medical department that handles everything,” Moneypenny explained. “They also take care of any outside relations that a handful of us have in extreme circumstances.”

“Only a handful?” 

Eve smiled sadly. “You’ll find that a lot of my coworkers are by themselves.”

Q nodded in understanding, not pushing any further on the subject. “So why does Alec…?”

“Hate medical?” Eve finished with a smile. “He and his co-conspirator are notorious for avoiding the place until they absolutely can’t. By then what might have been minor becomes something major and puts them out of commission for a few days. They hate being confined.”

Before Q could ask more, the door to the room opened and a slim, blonde walked in. Q caught the creamy bland scent of beta and relaxed. The beta smiled, approaching with her hand outstretched.

“You must be Moneypenny’s friend, I’m Doctor Todd, but I prefer to be called Liz.”

Q took her hand, surprised by the firm grip as he returned her handshake. “Q.”

If she thought the name was weird, Liz didn’t show anything outwardly and Q found himself liking the doctor already. She turned towards the counter, patting the medical bed as she passed it.

“Please just hop up here and then we can begin.”

Q began to do as she said, hopping up onto the bed while he watched her settle some paperwork.

Moneypenny cleared her throat across the room. “Q, I’m going to pop into my office for a bit. I’ll be back when you’re done.”

“That’s fine.” Q smirked, “I’m guessing I won’t have to go find you either?”

She returned his smirk with a grin of her own and winked. “Of course not. Be back in an hour!”

With that she was out the door and gone, disappearing down the sterile hallway beyond the door. 

For just a moment as the door slowly closed behind her, Q thought he picked up a familiar alpha scent of sandalwood and gun oil. The brief second sent his heart racing as he sniffed at the strong scent, his nose lifting to follow it, but it was gone just as the door shut.

“Hey, are you alright?”

Trish’s head was cock to the side in concern as she stood in front of him holding a blood pressure cuff. The look was so genuine that Q gave himself an extra hard shake to try to dispel the last of the fantasy. 

“I’m fine.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just got home from school! This means six weeks of nothing to do, which should mean more frequent updates! Yay! 
> 
> Once again, I'd just like to thank everyone who is reading, you all are amazing and every kudo and comment makes me smile like crazy! Thank you so much for sticking around!


	8. Chapter Eight

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So for some reason I had thought I had posted this chapter months ago, but when I went to edit the newest one I realized I hadn't. So I'm really sorry that I'm a horrible person who can't keep her head on straight. 
> 
> On a side note, we are getting so close to the discovery moment I have planned and I am so excited!

“Gun.”

“Tool.”

“Country.”

“England.”

“Murder.”

“Business,” Bond grunted, smirk plastered across his face. 

The leech across the table remained impassive, scrawling something on the yellow notepad. There was a pinch in his brow though that betrayed what the man thought of Bond and the smug pheromones he was emitting into the room. If possible it just made Bond smugger to know he was slowly crawling under the man’s skin. He didn’t play well with people trying to pry into his head.

“Are we done here, yet?” Bond drawled.

The psych pushed his glasses up his nose with two fingers. “Not yet, double-oh seven. We still have several more questions before this evaluation is over.”

Bond let his head roll on his shoulders, stretching the stiff muscles. He never should have let his guard down and enter medical. The leeches in psych had pounced him the moment they had seen his name on the roster. It had just been a scratch, he could have dealt with it himself and avoided this mess entirely, and if Boothroyd hadn’t forced him to, he would have. Sometimes he hated the older beta.

“Can we hurry up then please. I do have other more important places to be.”

The man across from him sent him a sharp look, the first true break in emotion on the man’s face since Bond had sat down half an hour ago.

“Orphan.”

“Agent.”

“Clock.”

“Ticking.”

“Sex.”

“Means to an end.”

“One word answers, Bond,” the man snipped. 

Bond grinned, “Fine. Pleasure.”

The scratching of the pencil filled the room.

“Omega.”

The alpha growled and across from him the psych calmly wrote down on his yellow pad. He took his time before looking up again, expression once again impassive.

“Q.”

“We’re done here.”

Bond shoved his seat back, ignoring the high pitched squeal the metallic legs made in protest as he got up. The psych didn’t protest as he crossed the room and swung open the door. He suspected it had a lot to do with the fear that was pouring off the man’s skin, souring the room with the petrified scent. His inner alpha rumbled happily at the smell, pleased to know it had put the nosey bastard back in his place. He let the door slam shut behind him and didn’t stop until he was out of medical, barely making note of the way all the orderlies and doctors cleared out of his path, scenting the violently protective pheromones oozing off his person. James growled at himself the moment he realized what he was doing, startling a poor young omega nurse who quickly scurried out of his way. 

Protective of an omega he was never going to see again. 

Since he was pulled out of the facility the omega had haunted him at every moment; waking, sleeping, hell even when he was working. He hadn’t even been able to bring the target’s omega daughter to his bed on his last mission to try to extract information from her, all because he had caught one whiff of her cinnamon and caramel scent and his inner alpha had been disinterested. It wasn’t the butterscotch, earl grey, and cream combination both of them craved.

Christ, what had his life come to.

He blamed this all on M and her fanciful ideas of alphas needing an omega to get their hormones in order. And protocol be damned, she’d force unruly agents to facilities if they refused to go on their own if they didn’t have one. James could only take some pleasure in the fact that she realized her own mistake when they whole thing backfired horribly with him.

“James.”

Trevelyan’s voice came moments before the hand on his shoulder. The Russian agent’s familiar scent washed over Bond, registering on a basic instinct of ally and pack mate. He turned to his friend with a small tilt of his head, matching the easy grin on Trevelyan’s face.

“Alec.”

The man dropped his hand and gestured for them to walk down the hall. In the general direction of the firing range, Bond noted as he followed. 

“How was Dubai?” Alec began conversationally.

“Hot,” James deadpanned, watching as an amused smirk grew on Alec’s face.

“Bastard,” Alec joked. “Heard you blew up a building.”

“Or two,” he quipped, chuckling right along with Alec. “Boothroyd wanted my head.”

The other alpha was cackling at this point. “I heard M did too. Reminds me of the days when we were allowed in the field together.”

Bond’s grin was vicious as he too recalled the times when Alec and him were allowed to run missions together. Everyone in the building had a bet that the clean up team had to have a separate division dedicated to just them. He was pretty sure Tanner had, had nightmares every time he had seen both of their names come up on a joint assignment. It had all come to an unfortunate end with a little incident in Singapore that got a bit too much public attention and forced M to act. Now it was stamped in red across both their files that they were only allowed to work together as a last resort and last resort only.

“Those were the days,” Bond agreed, reaching for the range’s door only for it to swing out open at him.

“What days?” Eve Moneypenny was smirking playfully as she stepped around the door. 

Her dark eyes rolled up and down his body boldly and Bond stood a little straighter with a lazy grin. He had always liked the other alpha, who, while not a double oh, was a perfectly capable agent on her own. Their games of fake flirting were always entertaining for the long stays at home and made being in the office somewhat tolerable. 

“Getting old already then?” She quipped when her eyes found their way to his again.

“We have a few good years in us yet, Eve darling,” Alec fake pouted.

Eve smirked. “Oh, I’m sure.”

“My pride is wounded,” Alec said and Bond lifted his eyes heavenwards when the man placed a hand over his heart. 

“Idiot,” Bond and Eve both shot at him together, earning a glare.

“Fine, don’t defend my honor, but I will remember this next time, my friend,” Alec was grinning at him even as he was threatening.

Bond shrugged it off. “I’m sure I’ll be able to handle defending my own just fine.”

Alec answered with his own version of a shrug, tilting his head slightly to the left in acknowledgment. It was only a second before he was looking back over to Moneypenny and looking pointedly at the empty space around her. 

“So where’s your sweet smelling omega?” 

James arched a brow at his friend, who was looking curiously at Moneypenny. Eve had an omega? The last he could recalled the alpha female was not interested in the baggage an omega companion carried with it. She liked to flirt and play with partners, but it was widely known that she liked to keep her relationships casual. 

“I’m going to collect him now and he’s a friend, double-oh six.” 

“Friend, right? So who’s pup is he carrying then?” Alec drawled and Bond sniffed in Moneypenny’s direction unable to pick up any strong traces of omega off her person. If she was in a close relationship it certain didn’t involve sex.

Eve’s eyes were narrowed dangerously and James took a small step back at the protective pheromones emitting from her. They were sharp lemony notes, like that of a mother protective of her pups. Not of an alpha protecting their mate.

“My taste in partners lay in less submissive partners,” she eyed Alec pointedly, grinning viciously as she continued. “My friend, got in a bit of trouble, unwillingly, and I am doing a few favors for him, because he is family.”

Unwillingly set an alarm bell off in Bond’s head and even Alec stiffened slightly out of the corner of his eye. Neither of them needed to know the omega for their inner alphas to grow restless at the word. It was hardwired in most alphas to protect omegas at all cost and when one was harmed they wanted nothing more than to shelter and aid them. The thought of one being harmed in such a manner that resulted in a pup caused a sick feeling to settle over Bond’s instincts. He couldn’t help but picture his Q in that position and the thought made him want to growl and rip the imaginary attacker to pieces, as well as gather his omega in his arms and try to take the hurt away. Even if such a feat were incapable of being accomplished, he’d try, because that was what alphas did for their omegas. They’d bring them the moon if asked and if Eve was close to this omega, he couldn’t imagine where her instincts lay.

Eve collected herself faster than either of them, smiling pleasantly as she excused herself. “Now, if you’ll excuse me gentlemen, I have someone to collect.”

As Eve brushed by, Bond swore he caught the faint trace of butterscotch and tea.

 

__________________________________________

 

“Now, do you understand what I’m saying, Q, because this is important for not only you but your pup.”

Liz was penciling away at her chart, so she didn’t see the way Q’s face was slowly draining of color. The room was suddenly too cold, even beneath his cardigan and shirt. He wrapped his arms around his flat stomach, imagining he could protect the small life inside of him with just that alone. But he couldn’t. Not if anything of what Doctor Todd was saying was true.

“Q?” Her voice was concerned and Q looked up to see the matching expression on her face.

He swallowed past the lump in his throat. “What if… What if there is no alpha in the picture?”

Liz’s expression fluttered between pity and alarmed. “The father is gone?”

Q shook his head. “It was my first heat and we were at a facility.”

“Fucking hell,” she breathed, before growling. “I’ve always hated those places. Fucking abuse of power is what they are. We might be in a population decline, but that is no reason to subject an entire part of it to rape.”

If he hadn’t already decided that he liked Doctor Todd, Q certainly would have at this point. Throughout the entire appointment she had proved to be a person of very progressive thought, even going as far as to ask Q what his career of choice was and talk at length about it. He wasn’t sure how much of it was because she was a beta or how much of it was because she was just a decent human being. He liked to believe it was more of the later.

“He wasn’t like that,” Q said softly, defending James’ honor, remembering how much the alpha had fought against being there in the first place. Only giving in when Q himself had told him to, which was more than Q could say for what some other alphas would have done.

Liz’s face softened slightly, but she still looked angry for him and that warmed Q to her further. 

“Well,” she sniffed. “I won’t fault him much, you are rather too tempting to avoid for long. I can’t imagine how the poor bastard must have felt trapped in a room with you probably smelling ridiculously appealing.”

Q tried to laugh, but it fell flat with the fear still chocking him.

Doctor Todd sighed and set her chart down to approach, Q. She set two warm hands over his own and held them gently. 

“Q, do you know of any other alpha who would be willing to provide a bond to help you through this?”

Moneypenny would if he asked her, she’d do it even if he didn’t if she knew how important it was, but Q didn’t want to do that to her. It wouldn’t be fair to either of them. Not with her being interested in a different sex and his heart belonging to another altogether.

“Perhaps,” he said instead, watching as Liz’s eyes dimmed slightly, knowing she knew he was lying.

She sighed and stepped away. “Q, I beg you to consider it. Your pup will not survive past a few months in the womb if you don’t have the support of an alpha bond. Statistics say that it is even likely that you won’t.” 

“I’ll try,” he promised, because he would. For his pup he’d do anything, especially after Liz had turned on the ultrasound machine and he’d heard the very faint murmur of heartbeats fill the room. From that moment on, he’d do anything. This pup was a part of him and, more importantly, a part of James and he couldn’t destroy that. 

“Well try to make the decision soon,” Liz said. “The sooner the better actually.”

Q nodded, rubbing his stomach. 

A knock on the door drew both of their attention and Eve popped her head in. Her smile faded when she took in the serious air in the room and she quickly stepped inside, shutting the door behind her.

“What is wrong? Is the little walnut alright?” 

“Walnut?” Q echoed.

Eve grinned, but it was tense as her instincts kept picking up the soured mood in the room. “I thought the little pup needed a nickname. Not sure if I’m fond of it yet, so expect a few more in the future till I decide which one I like better.”

Q rolled his eyes, but was stopped by the frown on Eve’s face.

“Is everything alright, Q?” 

How badly he wanted to say no, everything wasn’t, and he was sure Liz’s frown in the corner of the room said she wanted him to do the same thing. But he couldn’t get over the idea of ruining her future. Maybe as a last resort, but he had time. Time to plan and continue to search. He’d find James Bond.

He had to.

So until then.

“Yes.”


	9. Chapter Nine

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Another chapter? And another one nearly completed?! I'm on a roll! Also one more chapter left before Q finds out about Bond~!
> 
>  
> 
> WARNING: There are mentions to Q's past in this chapter as a figure from it comes up and I urge you to pay attention to the tags at this point in time. Nothing too explicit, but past child abuse is hinted and alluded to. So if that might be tiggering for you please precede with caution.

After the appointment, Eve had brought them straight back to the apartment with the bag back on over Q’s head and all. Over a dinner of Indian take out in Q’s flat, she continued to try to get any information about the appointment out of him that she could. Q kept his lips sealed. He didn’t want to broach the inevitable, not when he still had a small amount of hope left that he could change this around. Even if hope wasn’t quite the word he was looking for. 

No, he was determined.

He kicked her out around seven and promptly went to sleep at eight, worn out from everything his life had become. Q didn’t even touch his computers, which was perhaps the most appalling thing about the entire evening and come morning he regretted it. After waking up, he dragged his arse out of bed and got himself ready for the day. He didn’t have classes, but he wasn’t going to stay cooped up inside. Not when in a few months that’s all he’d be able to do.

So covering himself up with the scent masker Liz had given him, and Q was really starting to question what sort of place Eve had brought him to that they had so much illegal contraband on hand, he left with his laptop for his local cafe.

His cafe, as Q liked to call the place, was a run of the mill college student trap. Personally he would have stayed away from these sorts of places, with the trendy naturalistic interior and crowded corners filled with loud students chattering on about their day over a latte sweetened with too much pumpkin spice. However it offered the perfect cover for his more illegal activities. With more computers and cell phones active on the servers it was harder to narrow down the search to his own, without the added work of adding additional layers of firewalls and protections around his personal servers to prevent reverse tracing. 

Q placed himself in the direct center of the shop, in a small booth that had a perfect view of all the exits. The baristas knew him by face and he recognized the freckled beta who smiled and waved when he entered. She had his usual delivered to his booth before he’d even had his laptop fully set up and he had the cup halfway to his lips before he remembered caffeine was something he shouldn’t be drinking right now. Pouting, he set it back on the table. 

Q sighed. “Walnut, you want to kill me, don’t you?”

He imagined his walnut sized pup could respond to that.

“Alright then,” cracking his knuckles, Q settled on the task in front of him, “Let me see where your daddy’s been hiding, hm?”

Unlike his drunken hunt for James, which consisted of every social media site known to man kind, Q was planning on going deeper. It was already odd that the man didn’t currently exist on any of those sites, because seriously how did someone survive without so much as a twitter account these days? He wanted to find out why, because all of that screamed of someone who had something to hide.

Or some reason to hide.

Q swallowed the sour taste from him mouth and pulled up the first of many resources. He wasn’t going to be desperate yet, he’d leave the government run sites for last, first he’d just run a general diagnostic through one of his programs on any reference to a James Bond on social media sites at any point of time. Should he have had a profile he had deleted at some point, Q would be able to drag it out of the depths of the internet and with a few keywords he would also be able to manage weeding out any James Bonds that were not his James Bond.

He pressed enter and let his program do it’s job, taking a moment to go order a tea that wasn’t caffeinated. When he returned the program was still running and a message was blinking up from his phone.

[Eve: Cream or yellow?]

Q frowned at the text and shot back a quick response.

[Q: Why?]

[Eve: Paint shopping. Now stop avoiding the answer, cream or yellow? It’s a pale yellow if that helps any.]

Painting? Frowning, Q tried to recall if Moneypenny had mentioned anything about wanting to redecorate her apartment, but nothing was coming to mind. Not in the past couple of months anyway. 

[Q: Cream. Now what’s this for?]

[Eve: You’ll see.]

Q narrowed his eyes at the phone, but nothing else was forthcoming. A chime from his laptop drew his attention back to his original task and away from Eve and all her infuriating secretiveness. 

“You’ve got to be joking me,” Q growled, reaching for the keys.

Nothing. The search came up blank. His James Bond did not exist anywhere on any form of social media. No tags, no previously held accounts, no family or friends who mentioned him. It was like the man was some kind of ghost with no connections to anything or anyone in the modern world. Fuck, this wasn’t looking good at all.

Dropping his head onto the table, Q groaned.

Several choices were lined up in his head, none of which were entirely legal. Not that he had a problem with that, just that they were more work than he really wanted to do. It required a lot of active participation to use them, because the risker the source the more likely he’d have to be ready to fight back anyone attempting to follow his trace back and this wasn’t meant to be that hard. Finding someone through their digital footprints was supposed to be one of the easiest things he ever did, but it figured that the father of his pup would make this difficult.

Q grumbled into his mug, opening a new program. “Let it never be said that I didn’t like a challenge.”

After two hours he found himself back in square one and none the closer to finding anything about his James Bond anywhere. It was like the man was a ghost or didn’t exist at all. Q was starting to wonder if James Bond was even his real name. It certainly was a possibility, it wasn’t like Q had been forthcoming with his own birth name. It would be hypocritical of him to call James out on doing the same thing.

He was in the middle of growling to himself about worthless facilities and over potent alphas when someone slid into the seat across from him. Later he’d blame his frustration for his lapse of awareness when he looked up and made eye contact with the last person he ever wanted to see.

“Hello Isaac.”

The blood drained out of Q’s face as he snapped upright, hands dropping off the table and to his lap where he gripped his thighs painfully to make sure he wasn’t trapped in a nightmare.

The pain was real.

“Robert,” Q greeted emotionlessly.

Robert leaned back in his seat, tisking. His large frame overwhelmed the small coffee shop booth that had only really been built for one small individual to fit on each side. Q felt dwarfed in comparison. He always had.

Robert’s grin was sickeningly pleasant when he replied, “Now is that anyway to greet your father. It’s been years since we’ve last seen each other.” Since you ran away.

Trying to put on a brave front, Q forced a flat smile onto his face. “Sorry, my manners seem to have been misplaced in my surprise.” How did you find me?

The man across from him looked so pleased, like the cat that got the canary. Except this cat was a tiger and Q was something even smaller than a little yellow bird. He didn’t like the look either. It took him right back to when he was a scrawny thirteen year old kid with a brain much too smart for his own good and the smell of whiskey souring the air. Back to when dinners were often accompanied by shattered glass and blood stains. When Q could cry and scream himself hoarse, until he learned silence was better because nobody heard him anyway.

“Imagine my surprise, when I got a call from one of those fancy heat facilities sayin’ they were following up with my charge and wanted to know if omega Isaac Forrester had been bonded to an alpha yet.” Robert’s expression was downright terrifying and Q was frozen to his seat, watching as all his hard work came crashing down around him, knowing he knew this was going to happen but unable to do anything about it now that it was. 

“Now, I know my son wasn’t one of those breeders when he left in the dead of the night several years ago, so of course I denied it at first.” He looked practically gleeful as he continued, “But wasn’t I surprised when they had proof that it was you and what a world we live in where even your computers can’t hide you forever.”

Q felt his heart seize up in his chest. He'd thought he’d done so well, running away and hiding in London among thousands of other faceless people. He’d done everything in his power to hide his traces, erase his existence so that this very thing couldn’t happen. Back when he left the facility he’d thought Eve had managed to cover up that trace, because she was one of the few people who he’d told about his past and what he was running from. Why his name was a letter of the alphabet and why there was no last name to go with it. But it just went to show that human memory was something beyond his control. He couldn’t erase it or rewire it like a machine, so that nobody remembered who he was, who he was trying not to be. 

Robert looked pleased as he watched him squirm in his seat. His flat beta scent stronger than ever in Q’s nose now that the doormat omega gene was active. It made him want to sneeze, but more than that it made every bone in Q’s body want to run. However, Robert had placed himself strategically so that he blocked Q off from any easy exit and nobody was going to prevent him from dragging what the law considered rightfully his away. Even if Q went kicking and screaming.

Q looked over at his phone sitting between the two of them, where a message from Eve was blinking. He bit his lip and wondered how long it would take for him to go without answering her before she began to suspect something. A month ago he would have said a few days due to his shut in tendencies, however recently she was coming around more now that Walnut was confirmed.

He could only hope she’d notice something.

“So Isaac, are you going to make this easy on your old man or hard?” Robert leaned forward, placing his large forearms onto the table.

Q sat back and tried not to show his fear. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Robert growled, the sound not nearly as strong as an alpha’s but it reminded Q of bruises and welts that didn’t fade for days. “Don’t play dumb, boy. You’re coming with me and I’m going to match you off to the highest paying alpha there is. Do you know what the price of a good breeder is these days? More than you can possibly imagine with that funny little mind of yours. All about supply and demand, with the supply being so limited.”

Q stiffened, feeling something snapping inside him. Call it mother instincts, but suddenly he knew he would fight and fight hard before he let himself be sold off to the highest bidder. An alpha that would use and abuse him and his pup. James’ pup. And he wasn’t going to let that happen so easily. He didn’t have the muscle, but he did have the brains to figure his way out of this.

“So what do you say, son?” Robert was grinning.

Q’s attention was drifting around the room, cataloging everything he saw for a potential distraction or weapon. Anything that could aid in getting him away from Robert with as minimal direct contact as possible. He saw a few groups of people, some stray laptops, a barista with a tray of coffee. In the end there wasn’t that much and he dismissed most of it.

Q felt a rough hand close around his wrist and he yelped as he was jerked forward. Robert was glaring at him as he tightened his grip on Q’s wrist to the point where Q felt bones grind against each other.

“Answer me when I talk to you, boy!”

That’s when Q saw it. The mug of tea he’d ordered, still steaming and sitting between them innocently. Completely full. Without much thought process, Q quickly swept his other arm across the table and dumped the full mug over and out onto Robert who yelled when the hot liquid made contact. His rough grip immediately loosened and Q didn’t waste a moment in slipping free and grabbing his stuff.

“I’m going to kill you for that, you useless piece of-!”

“Excuse me, can we can help over here! He might have burned himself on accident!” Q called to the nearest barista, cutting off the rest of that threat. She smiled and was on her way, giving Q the perfect opportunity to book it out of there when she put her hands on Robert’s shoulder to help him.

Q ran and didn’t stop running until he looped around several times to his apartment, making sure to get lost in the crowd before he slipped through the doors and straight up the emergency stairwell. He skipped his floor entirely and used the extra key Moneypenny had given him to get into her apartment. 

She was standing in the kitchen baking when he crashed into her living room.

“Just in time, I was trying to call you. I wanted to know what you wanted for dinner, however I decided-,” Moneypenny turned around and dropped what she was holding. It landed with a crash and Q flinched at the sound.

“Q!” She gasped.

He was sure he reeked of fear and adrenaline, standing in the living room of her apartment shaking like a leaf now that the later was beginning to wear off and the truth of his situation was beginning to sink in. He had no clue what his face looked like. Whatever it was, it more than likely wasn’t anything pretty, if Eve looked like that. Her unflappable calm was breaking to show concern and a touch of fear as she rounded her kitchen and came up to Q with her arms fluttered at her side. He didn’t let her hover for too long, before he collapsed into her chest, letting the scent of a familiar alpha comfort him. Eve didn’t ask anything as she dragged him bodily to the couch and shoved him down before curling up around him. They stayed like that for a few minutes before Q broke the silence.

“He was there.”

Eve’s body stiffened around him, but she didn’t say anything which Q was glad for.

“He knows, too,” Q buried his face in her neck, muffling his voice. “He threatened to drag me back, would have to if I hadn’t dumped a relatively fresh cup of tea on him.”

He squeezed his eyes shut and ran a hand over his stomach. “The facility called him and now he knows and he knows where I am. Eve, I can’t go back. He’ll find me and I don’t know what that means for my pup.”

Eve ran a hand over his back and growled softly. “He won’t find you, I promise. From now on you’re not going anywhere without a protective detail.”

Q jerked back. “What? No, you can’t do that. I can’t let you do that! You have a job and I have options… I can disappear again.”

Moneypenny’s expression was fierce. “It’s not going to come down to that. I won’t let it and neither will my employers.” 

“Employers?” Q scowled.

Eve’s eyes twinkled in amusement. “Q, it’s about time I told you what I really did.”

Feeling his eyes grow wide, Q sat up and back, Eve following his example and leaning on the other couch arm across from him. He cocked his head to the side curiously. This wasn’t a turn he had been expecting, in fact Q wasn’t sure he was following this logic.

“What does that have to do with anything?”

Eve smiled. “Q, I work for MI6 and we’ve been watching you for a long time.”

Watching… what? The floor dropped out and Q still sat staring at Eve, expression frozen in deadpan, brain stuck in a loop. The words ‘I work for’ and ‘MI6’ running on in a complicated non-linear stream. Slowly he felt his eyes flutter and focused on Eve who was smirking coyly across at him, like the cat that got the cream.

“I need to savor this. I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen you so truly surprised.”

“How long?” Q breathed.

Eve’s lips tipped up at the corner. “Long before I came into the picture. I did hear it had something to do with a certain thirteen year old hacker who managed to crash through all of Q branches firewalls.”

Q had the decency to blush.

“Yeah well,” he muttered, promptly freezing at the thought. “Wait, does this mean everything was a job?”

For the first time, Eve frowned and shook her head firmly. “No, when I met you I was still on the surface of operations. You were termed classified, I was only recently assigned to watch out for you because of the nature of our relationship.”

Q relaxed slightly, but only slightly. He was glad that all the movie nights and night long drunken confessions were not lies. That their friendship wasn’t completely a lie. However there was a sting of betrayal. He’d known she’d been lying to him about what she did, however the fact that she was watching him burned a bit. Made him feel wrong, like he’d been stripped of a bit of his privacy.

“Were you meant to take me in if I did something illegal?” Q bit out, feeling bitter at the image that conjured up. 

Moneypenny leveled him a disappointed look. “Are you forgetting six months ago?”

Q’s face colored, remembering that night. Eve and him had found their way to the bottom of a particularly strong bottle of Russian Vodka. Sitting across from him, Eve had gotten that look in her eye that told Q whatever she was about to say was going to get one of them in a world of trouble. He’d been right too. She’d slide her fuzzy gaze over to the coffee table where his laptop had sat open between them and then turned to him with a triumphant grin. The next words had been a challenge, could Q prove he was competent with codes even while drunk. Smashed as he was he’d found himself hacking through the royal bank just to prove her wrong. He’d done it too and Eve had laughed for several hours afterwards in between snickering something about Q being able to take over the world in his pajamas. 

But she’d never dragged him to any interrogations the next day.

Or ever really.

Q felt shame fall over him and bowed his head so that Moneypenny couldn’t see the expression on his face. “Forget I said that.”

A warm hand wrapped around his own and Q looked up to see Eve smiling.

“I understand.” She giggled and looked downright mischievous, “Blame the hormones.”

“Bastard,” Q hissed, pulling away violently. A smile betrayed him though and they both ended up bent over chuckling. 

Moneypenny sobered up first, meeting Q’s gaze as he wiped tears from his eyes. “Q, I want to help and MI6 has had you marked as a candidate for a job for some time. They only want the best and you proved that several times over. If you accept a protective detail would come naturally, especially if you were under a threat.”

Q feel silent, looking from Eve’s open face to the floor and back. He bit his bottom lip and rolled his teeth over it for a moment. Sighing, he looked up at Eve from underneath his bangs.

“What type of job?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The cuteness in the next chapter is killing me slowly, I just love them so damn much!


	10. Chapter Ten

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So sooner than I expected, but here it is! So I think I'm going to try to challenge myself to post a chapter everyday this week, we'll see how that goes. Already eleven is almost done and GUYS IT'S THE CHAPTER WE HAVE BEEN WAITING FOR... sorta.
> 
> For now enjoy the fluff and ridiculousness that is this chapter.

“Q, I want you to officially meet Alec Trevelyan.”

Q stared blandly at the handsome, blonde standing next to Eve from over his cuppa. The lack of caffeine was starting to get to him and his mood matched it. He wanted nothing more than to be able to sprout laser vision and burn the overly cheerful Eve into ash for barging into his flat and disturbing him this early in the morning. The alpha behind her seemed to sense this too and was wearing a smug grin across his face and Q decided to add him to that list as well.

May both of them burn in hell.

“We’ve met before, except you were wearing a bag over your head then.” Alec gestured around his head to indicate some imaginary bag, smirk growing broader when Q turned his back and walked right back into the kitchen.

He really needed caffeine to deal with this.

“Pleasure,” he sounded anything but. “What’s he doing here, at this hour, then?”

Eve grinned, coming to lean against the counter while Q fetched more sugar to add to his tea. Half hoping the extra sugar would give him some kind of boast.

“It’s nine, Q. Most of the world is up by now.” She handed him a spoon from the drawer behind her. “And he’s here because you need a babysitter.”

Q growled. “I do not.”

“Yes you do,” Moneypenny sang, stepping back to avoid the empty sugar packet Q hurled her way. 

Growing serious, Eve stepped up to Q and placed her hand on his shoulder. “Also I’m going away on a mission this afternoon and I can’t be around to watch you in case he comes back.”

Q frowned. “Where?”

Smiling slightly, Eve pulled away. “That’s classified, but if you get the job you’ll find out.”

Q pouted and took a long sip from his mug, wincing at the overly sweet taste. Sugar was a bad idea then, but he kept on nursing it when Alec joined them. The blonde alpha passed both of them, earning an eyebrow raise from Q as he made himself at home and went straight for his fridge, opening it and rummaging through the shelves.

“What. Are. You. Doing.” Q snipped, glaring at the man’s back as he bent over to get something from the far bottom drawer.

Alec looked over his shoulder with a falsely innocent bat of his green eyes. “Making breakfast? If I’m meant to be on your watch for the next forty-eight hours, the least you can do is feed me.”

He smirked and grabbed one more thing in his hands before going to the stove and rattling around for a pan. Eve was snickering beside Q and he wanted nothing more than to hit them both and be done with it. 

“Forty-eight hours?” Q hissed, turning to his friend.

Eve shrugged, looking far too please with the situation. “Look at it this way, Q, you’ll be getting to know one of the people you’ll be working with.”

“That’s if he gets the job,” Alec tossed over his shoulder, earning a scowl from Q. “I’m still not sure he’s all you make him out to be.”

Alec finished his statement off with a full body scan from the nest of Q’s messy bed head to his feet which were covered by his oversized flannel sleep pants. He nodded to himself as if he just proved his own point and went back to making a mess of Q’s kitchen.

Q was used to people underestimating him because of his age and his looks, to the point where it didn’t really phase him anymore. He’d heard it all and he lived to prove them all wrong. The letter Q represented a fearsome reputation in the underbelly of the internet. Everyone knew the hacker that could code programs powerful enough to shut down entire countries if he wanted and everyone respected him. Revered him actually. So everyone else’s opinions outside of that world didn’t really matter, not when he had the respect he wanted elsewhere. However something about the smug manner Alec went about doing it, as if he were so self assured in his assessment he couldn’t possibly be wrong, and the fact that it was occurring in his home and in his kitchen, made Q’s anger flare. 

“I can do more damage in under an hour than you could in your entire life.” Q folded his arms across his chest defiantly, leveling Alec’s back with a burning glare.

“And with that, I’m going to excuse myself. Boys, try to play nice while I’m gone!” Eve kissed Q’s cheek quickly and slapped Alec’s arse before dashing out of the apartment.

Q stared after her with his mouth hanging open.

He was going to kill her. 

“Do you like your eggs a specific way?” Alec’s voice broke Q from glaring holes in the door and to the man currently waving his carton of eggs in the air between them.

Q scoffed and turned away. “No thank you.”

“Well too bad for you, I’m under strict orders to make sure you are in top condition when Moneypenny returns and making sure you eat is part of that.” Alec’s voice carried from the kitchen into the living room after Q. “Plus, think of the pup!”

“How do you know about my pup?” Q whirled around, meeting Alec’s gaze over the open counter that separated the kitchen from living room.

Alec raised an eyebrow. “Your scent? Did you not pay attention in those classes they make you omegas take?”

Q scoffed and plopped himself down on the couch, grabbing his laptop off the coffee table and booting it up. “I didn’t take any classes. I just presented.”

The sounds in the kitchen stopped. “What?”

Frowning at the alert on his desktop informing him he left a program running when he logged out, Q shrugged. “Late bloomer.”

The noise started up again, lower this time. 

“Alphas and omegas can scent a pregnant omega. Your scent is different, not bad and you still probably smell like you, just softer. It’s hard to describe really, best way I’ve heard anyone say it is that it smells like how you would expect a mother to,” Alec explained.

Q hummed back. It was an interesting tidbit of information. He knew alphas could smell pregnancy to an extent, which is why all those alphas had been showing him so much attention weeks ago, before he even knew he was carrying Walnut. He hadn’t been sure how aware they were of what they were smelling though. To be honest he’d been under the impression that it was a subconscious recognition and basic instincts urging alphas to find a fertile mate in an unbonded omega.

“Plus you smell fucking addicting, like pure sex and it makes any alpha near you want to prove they’re worthy just to get a chance to get a taste.”

Alec’s accented voice was right in his ear and Q jumped. The alpha behind him laughed and set down a plate with over easy eggs and toast on his keyboard. Q tilted his head back far enough to give him an upside down frown.

Alec rolled his eyes and pointed to the eggs. “Eat, or else Eve will literally have my bullocks on a spike.”

Q scoffed, “Maybe I’m fine with that.”

He ate them anyway. 

The pleased look the alpha wore when he found the empty plate an hour later was ignore by Q, who pretended he didn’t notice the man come in and pick it up. He buried his face further into his work, trying a different search method than a few days ago. This time he was looking into censuses and taxes. So far nothing.

Q wasn’t sure how much time had passed, he marked basic times by the two other plates with food on it that Alec would pop in and deliver before disappearing again. He’d pretend that he wasn’t interested initially, but Q would end up eating whatever it was when the alpha disappeared again. Part of Q wondered if he should have been worried that the other man was being so quiet, but he shrugged it off for the more important task at hand. The one that was getting frustratedly nowhere. James Bond was the single most difficult person to find, that Q was sure of. Now he could mark of that on top of the man not having any social media presence, he also didn’t have student loans, an education history, and he didn’t have a voting registration in any country.

Dropping his head onto the back of the couch, Q groaned. He was about ready to give up.

“Hey, what is this thing?” 

Jumping, Q grabbed the black mass waving less than one inch in front of his face. Pulling it away from his face so that his eyes could focus on it, he frowned. It was his prototype of a new safety on guns, something that would register hand prints to an individual user. It had also been placed under lock and key in his closet. Q turned to scowl at the man behind him.

“Where did you get this?”

Alec shrugged, moving to sit down next to Q like he’d been invited. He grabbed the gun from Q’s hand and expertly tested the weight in his own. Q’s eyes followed the way Alec easily held the weapon, exchanging it between hands, each as comfortable and familiar with it as the last. It spoke of years of handling and an impressive amount of training. Q would have been scared if he didn’t know who the man worked for.

“So what does it do?” He asked, aiming the gun at the bookshelf across from them.

Q knew it wouldn’t fire even if it was loaded so he didn’t fret too much for his collection of leather bounds.

“It’s a gun. It shoots bullets,” Q stated dryly, looking back to his laptop.

Beside him Alec dropped his aim. “I mean, what was done to it? It’s loaded, but it doesn’t shoot.”

“It wouldn’t do any damage even if it did. I only have blanks on hand.”

Sighing, Q set his laptop aside and grabbed the gun from the alpha’s hands. With practiced ease, he aimed at the wall across the room, pulling the trigger. The sound of a round being shoot echoed in the room, before he dropped his aim and handed the gun back over to Alec.

“It’s a biometric scanner. It will only shoot if a registered user’s finger print is the one resting on the scanner. Otherwise it might as well be a glorified paperweight.” Q huffed, reaching for his laptop again.

“Anything else then?” Q asked, pushing his glasses up his nose.

The room was silent for a moment, the only sound coming from Q’s fingers hitting the keys on his laptop. 

“What else?”

“There’s nothing else, it’s a gun, it shoots people or things, that’s it!” Q snapped, whirling around on the man.

Except Alec was looking at him with wide green eyes like he was a five year old on Christmas morning who’d just been told Saint Nick was real. The rest of Q’s retort died on his tongue and he was dumbfounded by the pure look of excitement on the alpha’s face.

“No, what else do you have?”

Q stuttered for an answer. Nobody had asked that before. Usually he had to be just text on a screen for someone to value his ideas or opinions. Otherwise he was too young or too green, or to this or that. Everybody looked down at the brilliant boffin who was so much more than a computer geek. Q liked to invent, he liked to see a problem and fix it to make it better, safer, more useful. But nobody ever cared.

Until now.

“Would you like to see them? 

Alec practically dragged him from the couch and into Q’s own bedroom, where he sat Q on the edge of the bed before gesturing around in question.

“Back of closet in the box marked shoes.” Q pointed.

And that was how he found himself with a an over eager agent picking through his tech. Alec would pull something out of the box and ask what it was, or was supposed to be in the instances Q had deemed the project too useless to finish. Q would explain how it was meant to work, because some of his experiments were not safe to set off in his apartment and he had to put his foot down firmly when Alec was too overly eager about anything particularly dangerous. Sometimes the alpha himself would have a recommendation and Q would ponder over them, he ended up taking out his notebook halfway through to write down some of the suggestions. Having a person with real experience who knew what he needed in the field gave him a whole new perspective on some of his tech and already Q’s mind was working to try to tweak some of his designs. Hours past, but Q didn’t quite realize how much he was enjoying bantering with Alec over the specs on certain weapons, until he found himself nodding off against the man’s side.

Alec nudged him gently awake and met Q’s sleepy pout with a soft grin. “I think it’s time you went to sleep.”

“I was,” Q grumbled, wanting to bury himself further into the alpha’s side and fall asleep again. This was the first time in months he’d been comfortable around an alpha that wasn’t Moneypenny and his inner omega was purring contently at the reassuring scent of pine and gunpowder. It wasn’t James’ sandalwood and gun oil, but it was close enough that he didn’t want to let it go.

Alec’s lips pinched into an amused frown and prodded him again. “Come on, Q.”

Q fussed for another moment, but eventually gave in and rolled over so that he was comfortably situated in the middle of his bed and not at the edge. He didn’t even have the energy to change or brush his teeth. Behind him Alec chuckled and stood up, causing the bed to shift slightly.

“You’re not so bad,” Q slurred sleepily, watching Alec with one half lidded eye from over his pillow. 

Alec stopped in the doorway, one eyebrow raised. “Yeah?”

“… Yeah.”

Alec chuckled, hitting the lights. “See you in the morning, Q.”

“ ‘ight,” Q mumbled back, already feeling himself drift off.

He slept like the dead, until he wasn’t. 

Blinking the sleep from his eye, Q tried to figure out what woke him up. He’d always been a relatively light sleeper so he wasn’t surprised, but whatever it was he needed his glasses to see first. Mumbling to himself, he tried to sit up to reach over to his nightstand for where he usually left them, however he wasn’t able to move very far with a weight pressed over his middle. Well that answered the question to what woke him up.

“Wha-?” Q’s mind was still slowly rebooting and even his words were coming out slower than usual.

A familiar chuckle surprised him. “Here.”

Q felt something being placed in his hand and he brought his glasses up to his face and settled them on his nose. Finally able to see, he looked down at the weight currently resting on his stomach to see the blonde alpha’s head resting against it.

“What are you doing?” Q’s head tilted to the side, getting a better view of Alec who looked rather content in his place. The alpha’s eye were closed and he wore this small, soft smile that had Q turning to goo over.

Alec hummed contently. “Listening.”

“You can hear, Walnut?” Q gasped, wanting to sit up however didn’t want to displace the alpha at the same time.

Alec frowned slightly and shook his head, the short hairs tickling Q’s skin where they touched. “Walnut?”

Q shrugged. “Moneypenny choose it. I’m just sticking with it for now.”

“Of course she did,” Alec snorted sitting up. “And no, I can’t hear anything just yet. It’s too soon, give it a few months, but we alphas like to pretend with these sorts of things. Plus I couldn’t resist.”

Before Q could ask, Alec placed both his hands over Q’s flat stomach before promptly blowing a raspberry into it. Jumping, Q kicked the laughing alpha in the head and pushed him from the bed.

“Bastard,” Q shouted, growling when all the alpha did was laugh as he left the room.

“Breakfast is ready in the kitchen,” Alec shouted back. “Hurry up and get ready, we have to leave soon. M doesn’t like to be kept waiting.”

Q muttered a few choice curse words towards the alpha, before getting up and going to get ready. He took back what he said the night before, Alec was that bad. He was the worst. Worse than even Moneypenny when she decided to leave Q in his care. He deserved everything he got coming to him and then some. May he rot in hell with other bastards like him.

He continued to grumble these things to himself as he showered and dressed, before going to meet Alec in the kitchen where a plate of waffles were sitting on the counter for him. Q shot the amused alpha a glare as he sat down and hurried to eat. They were good, much better than the atrocities Q himself could attempt to make, however he wasn’t going to give the blonde any further amusement. Instead he aggressively downed the rest of his non-caffeinated tea to wash it down.

“Are you always this cute in the morning?” Alec announced in his amusement and Q almost tossed his mug at his head.

He didn’t, but just barely.

“Now, there are a few things to remember,” Alec said as the two of them locked up the apartment and made their way down to the car port. “M is in charge, but Q is head of the department and will be ultimately deciding if you are skilled enough to take the position.”

“Q? That’s amusing,” Q said flatly. He wasn’t really that worried over the interview, Q already made more than enough in a year to live comfortably. He also knew he was the best and if they turned him away it was their loss really.

Alec’s lips tipped upwards as he ushered Q towards the black car sitting idle by the curve. “I know, one can almost think you were meant for that job.”

“Wait, Q is a job title not their name?”

Alec shook his head and held the back door open for Q. The omega slipped inside, wearily making eye contact with the silent beta behind the wheel who only nodded at his presence. Alec hopped in behind him and shut the door.

“Boothroyd is his name, General Boothroyd actually, no one really knows his first name,” Alec mused. “Q stands for Quartermaster, but we have this habit of using our designations as names within MI6, at least among the higher ups. Call it our quirk.”

“Uhuh,” Q drawled. “So does Moneypenny have another designation?”

Alec shook his head, smirking. “She’s trying to work her way up to one, but right now all the positions in her side of the division are filled. They don’t last long though.”

Well that sounded ominous, Q thought. “What about yourself?”

“Double-oh six.” Alec’s grin suggested that, that was something Q should be in awe of.

“A number, impressive, Trevelyan.” Q smirked.

Alec snorted. “Since you might work with us soon, you might want to know what that means. Double-ohs are agents with a license to kill, the best of the best. There are ten of us in total, starting with zero and go up to nine. We’re often told we’re the real bastards of MI6, we do love our toys and explosions.”

That Q expected, however knowing there were ten others in the world like Alec made Q wonder how it was even still standing. “You sound like a pleasant bunch.”

“Oh, we are.” He was pleased with himself.

The car rolled to a stop and Alec gestured for Q to slide out first, before he followed up closely behind the omega. They were in front of perhaps the largest building in London outside of parliament. Q looked it up and down and wondered how exactly nobody knew what went on inside. It was a miracle really, all this secrecy for something so publicly placed.

Alec placed a hand on Q’s shoulder and guided him inside. At first it looked exactly like any other city office building, however the deeper they went the more Q started to pinpoint the differences. Nothing obvious, just more cameras and scanners on the doors that went beyond a simple key card. Q actually wanted to observe those more, but Alec was pulling his along.

“We have an appointment to keep.” He reminded.

When they turned another corner, Q became aware of the eyes on him. They were subtle about it, but he caught a few quick glances from people they passed. A few looked from Alec to him and back, before they realized Q was watching them back and went back to their work. They looked at Alec like he was something dangerous and Q suspected it had something to do with the job title and the license to kill.

“Double-oh six, right on time.”

The man standing in their way was smiling and smelled overwhelmingly beta. His round face was open though and he was looking at Q even as he addressed Alec. He held out a hand to Q when he approached.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you finally.” Q accepted his the hand shake, curious at the awe that was openly displayed on the man’s face. He dropped his hand and Q returned it to his side.

“Tanner,” he introduced himself. “And I hear you prefer to be called Q.”

Q nodded and Tanner smiled. “Well, M and Q are waiting right this way. Don’t let the former’s face fool you, she is really quite a big fan.”

Alec snorted beside him. “Well I’ll stay out here then. Don’t want to bother mum today.”

Tanner shot the alpha a sharp look over Q’s shoulder, which had the omega stifling a snort. Alec looked about as upset about it as if a fly had flown into his face. He shrugged and wondered off down the hall without a word. Q figured he’d know when to come collect him and would be waiting for Q when he exited to office. 

“Well right this way then.”

Q followed Tanner down one last hallway, that quickly opened up into a series of glass walls on either side. He could see all of London outside the windows and for a moment the view distracted him before he was pulled back into the present by the sound of Tanner clearing his throat.

“Q, may I introduce you to the Quartermaster of MI6 and M.”

Tanner gestured to the other two occupants of the room. The first was an alpha in his later fifties, with greying hair and a broad build. He still stood with the stance of a general in the military, but age had stooped his shoulders just slightly. The seated figure beside him was an older woman with a stern expression. There was an air around her that Q recognized as undeniable power and authority. This was M, the head of MI6.

And she was an omega.

The last revelations shook Q completely. An omega was in charge of the country’s largest intelligence agency. An omega! Outside omegas weren’t even allowed to be in charge of their own person, let alone hold a paying job. Yet here in a government run facility, an omega ran head over everything and from what he could see the people around her respected her fully.

“It’s a pleasure,” Q stammered after his surprise wore off. Still he found himself staring a M in some mix of shock and awe.

Beside her the Quartermaster began to chuckle, an infectious smile breaking out across his face. “Look at the poor boy! M, did no one tell him about what we do here?”

M didn’t say anything, her eyes locked on Q to the point where he was beginning to feel like a caged animal put up for show.

“Do you know why we brought you here?” She said.

“Moneypenny informed me that it was because you’ve had me being watched,” Q stated flippantly. “If that’s my understanding, then I really can’t say why I’m not in an interrogation cell.”

M’s lips twitched, but nothing else outwardly showed if she found his shot funny. Instead she gestured to the chair across the desk from her. Q gladly took it and settled himself across from the two calmly.

Beside M, Boothroyd began chuckling. “I like this boy. He reminds me a little of myself.”

M’s face didn’t twitch however. “You’re here because we think your skills are useful, however if they prove not to be we can arrange for that interrogation.”

“Well then, I shouldn’t have to worry, I’m the best there is.” 

Q quirked his lips slightly. They had been watching him for a long time, but he wondered if they knew everything he was capable of. Setting a camera or tail on someone didn’t exactly reveal their cyber footprints and nobody was watching that. He’d have been aware if there had been and now he was itching to prove how capable he was with a computer. 

“Well let’s test that then, shall we?”


	11. Chapter Eleven

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for what's about to happen... Don't hate me too much.

“So I hear congratulations are in order. Welcome to Wonderland, R.” 

Alec was grinning as he returned to the booth with a pint for himself and a club soda for Q. The omega accepted the drink, wincing at the new name. It would take some time to get used to, but he wasn’t against it. Q would always fit better, however R wasn’t too bad. Boothroyd had proudly spent the entire afternoon showing Q the ropes of Q-branch once Q proved that he was more than worthy of the second in command position. It was almost sad that they thought getting into their servers was a challenge worthy of his interview. Q had their firewalls down in less than three minutes and put their entire servers into a complete black out mode in five, which wasn’t exactly the challenge but Q couldn’t resist proving how useless their whole security network was. He resigned himself to fixing that at some point.

Q-branch was nice though. The minions, as Boothroyd had called them were already welcoming at first, but once it got out who Q was they began hovering around him like lost puppies until Boothroyd shooed them away. Apparently his online persona extended to all techies in the world and not just those in the underground. They didn’t go far though and Q had felt their eyes on him as Boothroyd ran through the basic functions of the branch and what they did. Q’s eyes had bulged out of his head when he’d seen the weapon tech room where Boothroyd was experimenting on making MI6’s weapons sleeker and better. He’d been itching to get his hands on everything, including the unlimited budget to do so. 

Q felt like just maybe he’d finally found his place to succeed and it didn’t matter to them that he was young and pregnant. They just wanted his brain and capabilities, which Q was more than willing to give if they could overlook the rest. 

“Cheers.” Q let himself smile as he clinked glasses with Alec, before taking a drink. 

In front of him, Alec downed nearly half of his pint before setting it back on the table. 

“Well I’ve been assigned your official protection detail until Moneypenny gets back,” Alec chuckled. “M, is rather fond of you already.”

Q’s brow quirked upwards. “Really? I couldn’t tell.”

“Well that’s M for you,” Alec smirked, “she’s a right bitch, especially to the ones she actually likes. When double-oh seven gets back you two can have a long conversation about her.”

Q sat back laughing slightly. “I assume they don’t get on then?”

“They drive each other mad, well he drives her mad, but she mothers him like crazy.” Alec snorted, tossing back another mouthful of beer.

“Interesting,” Q mused. 

Around them shouting broke out as a score was made on whatever match was playing on the telly above the bar. Q turned to frown at the ruckus, which made Alec chuckle across from him. 

“Alphas,” he muttered.

Alec shrugged. “Can’t help what we are.”

“That’s just an excuse,” Q pointed out. “I’ve known an alpha or two who could control themselves.”

“Who?” Alec challenged playfully as he leaned back in his seat, resting an arm lengthwise against the back of the booth. 

Q took another long drink before answering. “Well you and Moneypenny seem to have your control down… Or well Moneypenny does.”

Alec sputtered at the insult, causing Q to laugh. He believed Alec had himself controlled well enough, however he couldn’t resist pushing the other’s buttons, especially since the other seemed to have just as hard of a time resisting doing the same to him. And let it never be said that Q did not give back as good as he got.

“Who else though?” Alec eventually pushed. “I don’t exactly count Moneypenny and myself as typical examples of alphas.”

James, Q wanted to say. James was a good example of an alpha who had amazing control. He’d resisted jumping Q right away, even though he’d been in heat at the time. Most other alphas would have just given in to their instincts right away, however James had taken his time and made sure Q was comfortable with everything before he did anything. He’d been the complete opposite of everything Q thought an alpha should be and just thinking about him made Q ache for him now. 

“The father of my pup,” Q breathed quietly. 

Silence followed the confession as Alec stared at him intently. For once he wasn’t pushing Q to say something, but there was a question in his gaze that said he wanted to know and would listen if Q wanted to talk. He did too, because bottling it all was beginning to fray on his own control.

“Up until a month or so ago, I thought I was a beta,” Q chuckled dryly at that, his life had changed so drastically since then. When all he really had to worry about was staying out of the public eye to keep his father from finding him. 

He rested a hand on his lower stomach. “I thought I was coming down with a cold, but it turned out to be a late heat. Someone reported it and I was snatched by one of the facilities, when I woke up I was handcuffed to a sterile bed in a heat room.”

The entire time Q spoke he wasn’t looking at Alec, but at the stained table top. He could feel the alpha’s gaze on him though and could smell the mixture of anger and outrage rising off the man in waves. 

“I thought that was it, that I was going to be an unwilling party used by some old, wealthy bastard who wanted to take a virgin omega. However when they brought the alpha in he proved to be anything but.” Q choked on a laugh, remembering all the beta guards who had to drag James’ in fighting. “He didn’t want anything to do with the place, much less take an unwilling partner. I remember how hard he tried to resist at first until I told him it was okay, that I preferred it was him than another alpha.”

“So where is he?” Alec’s face was sympathetic as he leaned forward to be closer to Q. He looked like he would run out and clock the bastard if Q told him he knew where James was. For once he was thankful he didn’t, because he couldn’t imagine how a civilian would fare against a trained assassin. Even one as capable as James had seemed.

Q swallowed thickly and shrugged. “I don’t know. When the heat was over they took him out and I never saw him again. I didn’t think I would get pregnant, it’s a statistical impossibility, and the facility files all their alphas under pseudonyms. I’ve been trying to find him ever since I found out, but so far I’ve gotten nowhere.”

Alec reached over and grabbed one of Q’s shaking hands, squeezing it reassuringly. “You’ll find him. MI6 will help you find him. I have a feeling all the minions in Q-branch would burn the world down to ash if you asked and you haven’t even given them time to really warm up to you yet.”

A watery laugh escaped Q’s lips and he nodded. Alec grinned and gripped his hand firmly, pulling him to his feet.

“Come on, I think it’s time to take you home now.”

Q nodded his head in agreement and followed Alec out of the bar to catch a cab at Alec’s insistence. Alec kept arm around Q the entire time, growling when one of the alphas lingering outside the bar stepped too close, and Q’s omega instincts were in heaven at the attention. He burrowed into the alpha’s side, scenting the pine and gun oil that was Alec’s signature. It made him want James more, but it also made the want hurt less. He figured it also was good for his pup, whom needed the alpha presence.

Alec paid the driver when they got to the building, before leading Q up and into his own apartment. Q stuck close as Alec surveyed the flat for any threats before stopping in the kitchen for a glass of water. He held up another one for Q, who shook his head.

“You need anything else?” Alec leaned against the counter while Q hovered in the center of the kitchen.

Q shook his head. “I think I’m going to just go to bed. Walnut and I’ve had a long enough day.”

He ran a hand over his stomach, smiling slightly as he imagined the growing bundle of cells in there. Soon it’d be a recognizable pup, but right now it was still just forming. Which reminded Q that he needed to do his research to see what was in store for him. What sort of changes to expect as Walnut continued to grow and form. He didn’t want to mess this up.

“Don’t worry, most omegas are hardwired on how to handle pregnancy. You’re not going to fuck up.”

Q looked up sharply to see Alec eyeing him knowingly over the rim of his glass. He shrugged when he saw he had the omega’s attention and placed his glass behind him on the counter. “I’ve been around a few omegas in my time, even ones as inexperienced as you.”

“It’s not me, I’m worried about,” he admitted. 

Alec cocked his head to the side, listening.

“I need to find my alpha before too long, because pups need a bond in order to develop healthily. We’re both at risk the longer I’m without one.”

“And it needs to be your alpha, the father?” The alpha looked concerned. “That’s why you need to find him?”

Q shook his head. “I want it to be him, but if it comes down to it I’ll have to make sacrifices. I want my pup to live.”

Alec nodded, looking solemn. Q sighed and decided that he’d unloaded enough baggage on the alpha for one day. Turning, he mumbled a goodnight and headed towards his room. He just crossed the threshold of the door when Alec’s voice stopped him.

“Q, just so you know, if it does come down to it, MI6 protects it’s own. We’ll be there for you.”

The weight on Q’s shoulders lifted slightly and he turned to give the alpha a grateful look before shutting his door. Today had been a long day and Q felt himself crashing before he even hit his pillows. At least he had the foresight to place his glasses on his nightstand this time before he curled up in on himself with a small smile. 

The future wasn’t looking too bad anymore.

Morning came with the scent of frying sausages and Q didn’t fight with himself as he rolled over and grabbed his glasses to look at the clock. It read just after ten and Q took a moment to stretch lazily. At least he’d been allowed to sleep in a bit this morning, though usually he never really went to bed to begin with. That was only a recent development thanks to the bundle of joy that was growing in his abdomen somewhere. He figured his days of late night coding were over for the foreseeable future.

Grinning to himself, Q got out of bed and wondered into his bathroom to get ready for the day. He didn’t have to go into MI6 yet, Boothroyd and M had made it clear that his official starting date wasn’t until next week. However Q wanted to get a head start on some things so that when he did go in he could show them how dedicated he was to helping. He’d briefly explained his biometric scanner the other day to Boothroyd when Alec had made a quip about Q have more useful weapons that MI6. To say Boothroyd had been impressed and interested, after he’d threatened to send Aleck out into the field with just a pencil next time, was an understatement. He’d asked Q to bring in the specs and the prototype if he could, so that they could see about working it into their weapon program, and maybe it would stop their agents from getting shot at with their own guns. 

Alec was cooking in the kitchen, humming the tune to Korobeiniki to himself as he flipped some eggs over in a pan. Q tried not to snort to himself at the stereotype Alec was portraying with his choice of music, however he failed when Alec turned around and frowned at him.

“Don’t say anything,” he threatened, brandishing a spatula at Q. “Not a soul.”

Q held his hands up innocently, a smirk playing on his lips. “I hadn’t thought of it.”

Alec shook the spatula at him one more time before turning back to his task, leaving Q to slide around him to get the hot kettle for his tea. He was still upset that he couldn’t drink his usual blends and wouldn’t be able to for months yet. Setting himself up, he slide onto one of the barstools at the counter to watch the agent at work. 

“So do you do this every morning?” Q mused, grinning wickedly into his mug. “Because I might have to keep you around then.”

“I’m not your housewife,” Alec growled, sliding a hot plate of eggs and toast to Q across the counter.

Q quirked an eyebrow. “Would have fooled me.”

The alpha stared at him silently for a moment, before chuckling softly to himself. Q watched him tip his head backwards and shake his head at the ceiling. “Good lord, you are going to be a handful in Q-branch.”

“I do aim to please,” Q quipped, sipping his tea smugly.

Rolling his eyes, the alpha joined him at the counter with his own plate and the two ate together in easy conversation. At some persistence, Alec began sharing some of his mission stories, leaving Q both choking in laughter at some of the agents mischievous and resigned for the fact he’d have to put up with this in another week. Handling one of Alec was going to be a headache, if the other agents where anything like him it was going to be a nightmare. 

Somewhere during their swapped stories and Alec nearly fell off his barstool when Q had him roaring with laughter over the time he got into the US’s election polls to switch the numbers around causing all the news stations to announce the wrong guy was in the lead, both of them missed the sound of a key turning in the deadbolt. So neither of them noticed when Moneypenny dragged herself into the room, until she was standing in front of them trembling. 

Alec was out of his chair like lightening at the same time Q gasped, “Eve.”

She looked like something out of a nightmare. Her eyes red and tired like she’d been crying, her clothes and hair disheveled. It was the way Eve looked devastated though that really scared Q through completely. 

“I’m so sorry, Alec,” Eve whispered, curling in on herself. “I’m so sorry.”

Alec was rooted to the spot, his eyes wide. There was concern there and fear, but he hide the later very well as he stood uncertainly between the counter and where Moneypenny centered herself in the middle of the kitchen. Q stared between them uncertain of what was happening.

“What happened?” Alec asked, voice calm.

Eve hiccuped and hugged herself. She took a shaky breath before she made eye contact with the other alpha. Q swallowed thickly when he saw fresh tears in her eyes, his stomach tying itself into knots. Something was telling him to get out of the room and run now before she spoke again. His gut tugging him away to save himself, however he was rooted to the spot like a deer in the headlights of an oncoming truck.

“I shot him, Alec,” she whimpered, “I shot double-oh seven.”

Alec’s frame stiffened minutely.

Moneypenny shook her head trembling. “I killed him, Alec. I killed James.”

Q’s eyes widened fractionally, his instincts rearing ‘GET OUT NOW’, but by the time he shakily stood up Alec put the final nail in his coffin.

“… Bond’s dead?”

Q felt his world slowly crumbling away, a wave of blackness crashing over him and putting him out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So if you've seen Skyfall- and I'm assuming if you're reading this you have- then you know what happened between Eve and Bond and you know that this is a temporary thing. Next chapter is in Bond's POV and yes they do finally reunite and yes everyone is going to be pissed as hell with him. Oh, it's going to be so much fun, so watch out for that tomorrow! ;D


	12. Chapter Twelve

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter marks a few accomplishments: 
> 
> 1) Passed 20k hits! OH MY GOD! YOU ALL ARE LOVELY AND I LOVE YOU ALL!
> 
> 2) This fic has officially reached over 100 pages, so congrats for sticking with me this long!
> 
> Here's your reward!

Death was pleasant. It was a break. Death was to not have to look over your shoulder for the next sign of danger. It was the lack of responsibilities and worries. Death was not being used like a pawn in someone else’s scheme. Bond liked death far more than being alive. He’d enjoyed his death throughly, however there had been something missing from the start. Something that beautiful people and booze couldn’t fill. It pulled him back towards London before he’d even seen the news of the explosion.

He’d come back expecting his usual welcome. A slap on the back of the hand and some quips about having paperwork to file. The reevaluation was even expected. The barely disguised hostility however, was something that caught him off guard. 

It had started with M, who slapped him across the face before kicking him out of her flat when he first revealed he wasn’t dead, and he could have expected that at least if it had stopped there, but it hadn’t. M was quickly followed by Moneypenny, who made sure to deliver a hard punch to his damaged shoulder. He tried to remember what he’d done to make her so upset with him, but quickly learned it went beyond even her. Every hall in MI6 was met with another spitting glare or hard shove, the physical violence coming from any double-oh he passed because even though everyone appeared hostile around him, only the other double-ohs felt safe enough to escalate to violence. Even bloody Tanner gave him a nasty glare and turned his back to Bond. 

It was Alec though that surprised James the most. He’d expected a warmer welcome from the man he’d served his country side-by-side with for years, going back before even their MI6 days. Both of them had played at being dead before and surely he would have understood at the very least. However the other double-oh had caught one glance at him in the hallway before delivering a powerful right hook to his face. He’d gotten in one more shattering uppercut to James’ jaw, before a text stopped him from doing any more damage. Bond wouldn’t ever forget the way his friend had drawn away like he’d like to flay James alive where he stood if he could, and then he’d said the most confusing thing Bond had heard to date.

“I’m only stopping because for some reason he forgives your sorry arse.” 

James had watched him walk away in pure confusion. His jaw and cheek ached from the strength Alec had put behind his blows and all James could think of was how he had no clue why everyone looked like they wanted him dead for real. 

He was almost glad when an angry Tanner had given him the file with his new orders and a mission. He’d only been back a week and already he was ready to get out and away from the very people he’d come back to help. 

“I hope our new Q sends you into the field with only a pencil.” Was Tanner’s parting, said complete with a vicious smile.

Sighing to himself, James hurried up the steps to the National Gallery for his afternoon meeting with the new Quartermaster. He’d been sad to hear that Boothroyd had been a casualty of the MI6 explosion. James had actually liked the man and respected his work both inside of MI6 and from his days as a general. Though the word around was that the new Q was a force to be reckoned with. Even though nobody was open with discussing things with Bond, he’d heard the gossip in passing about the man who now ran Q-branch. That he’d built tech never before seen, both useful and lifesaving. The other double-ohs seemed to adore him and everybody else seemed to hold massive respect for the changes he was implementing within the department already. To say Bond was curious to meet the man himself was an understatement. 

The Fighting Temeraire was an odd choice of a painting to meet in front of, however it was easy to find and one of the only rooms were very few people lingering around. James took a seat on the bench in front of it and settled to wait for his Quartermaster to arrive. 

It was then that the smell hit him. A teasing scent of butterscotch and cream that he’d never forgotten, only resigned himself to never encountering again. It was slightly different than he remembered it being, but time and memory were fickle creatures that didn’t often go hand in hand. Bond just barely fought the urge to shoot up and follow it, when he realized it was getting closer.

James looked up the moment it filled the same room as him, seeing Q for the first time since he been dragged from the heat room at the facility. He looked just as beautiful as the last time Bond had seen the omega, more so in fact. Q looked like he was glowing, a flush in his cheeks and a new shine in his hair. He looked taken care of and content.

And Bond realized what the change of scent was.

Q’s stomach, though covered by a ridiculously oversized parka as it was, was clearly curving out just slightly from the rest of his torso. The glow, the flush, and the shine suddenly made sense and Bond had never felt more gutted in his life. Even Vesper didn’t compare. Here was the only omega he’d ever dreamed of tying himself permanently with and someone else had come and taken that possibility away. And Q obviously adored whoever it was, because everything Bond remembered about the witty omega said that he wouldn’t settle down with just any person. He must love his alpha if he decided to give them a pup.

And as if the world hadn’t tortured James enough, Q sat down on the bench less than a few inches away from him. His inner alpha wanted to whine at having his chosen omega so close, but untouchable at the same time. He couldn’t help but look over at the other out of the corner of his eye to see the bruise at the base of his neck. Not a bond mark, but Bond didn’t want to look beneath that to see if the purple flesh hid the silvery, golden mark of a soul bond. He wouldn’t be able to take that much.

Q cleared his throat. “It always makes me feel a bit melancholy.” 

He rambled on for a minute about a grand old war ship and the inevitability of time, turning to face Bond for the first time, those green eyes impossible to meet. He didn’t seem to care that Bond’s attention didn’t seem to be fully on him, which was the biggest lie ever told because every word out of Q’s mouth was like a precious gem James wanted to hold onto. This was as close to the omega he was ever going to get again and, even though it was torture sitting beside he knowing that, he couldn’t help himself until it became too much. Until Q asked for his opinion and James couldn’t help his bitter answer.

“Bloody big ship, excuse me.”

Following his instinct to flee, Bond began to get up when Q stopped him yet again. 

“Double-oh seven.”

James sat back down slowly, realization sinking in. Q was Q, his Quartermaster. As if running into him once wasn’t bad enough, the world thought James needed to see everyday, to hear him over the comms directing his missions, and to torment him forever with his presence. 

Forcing himself to keep civil, it wasn’t the omega he was upset at but the world and God if there even was one, Bond tried to turn their conversation into banter. Q fell along into it, matching him quip by quip. It was easy now to understand why everybody in MI6 loved their new Quartermaster, they saw exactly what Bond had always known. The intelligent, quick witted young man James had met in a heat facility. 

When they exchanged a handshake, Bond tried not to let the other see how affected he was by his presence. He played professional and cool, accepting the paperwork and tech with careful ease brought about by years of training and field work. Q didn’t suspect a thing, running through all the standard fares with casualness that said he’d been doing this for a while during the time Bond was gone. 

After one last quip about an exploding pen, Q stood up and crossed Bond’s path to wonder his way towards the other end of the gallery. The stirred air sent another powerful wave of Q’s scent at Bond, who breathed it in deeply. 

It was than that he recognized it.

Another scent that lingered on Q that Bond had initially ignored. He couldn’t understand how he’d dismissed it at first as it hung onto every particle of Q’s being, mixing with his very scent in an obvious sign of a healthy bond. An all too familiar scent of pine and gun powder.

Bond stood up hastily and fled the room at a brisk walk even as Q had turned around one last time to say something to him. He could have bared it if Q had belonged to a strange alpha, even if said alpha worked at MI6. Really, he could have done that with only mild pain at the reminder of the chance he’d lost. However, smelling Alec on the one he wanted was too much. It suddenly made sense why the other agent had wanted him in pain and dead when he returned. If Alec knew about what happened between them, James would always be a threat. Their past relationship wouldn’t matter. Q must have stopped him that day in the hallway, watching over the cameras like the brilliant Quartermaster he now was. Both of them would take the world together and Bond didn’t want to be privy to watching that. So he did what he always did to solve his problems. 

He found his way to the bottom of the bottle.

A small pub nearby the hotel MI6 had put him up in until he was properly returned from the dead severed its purpose. The bartender kept the alcohol coming as long as Bond was paying and the other patrons had their own problems to worry about and didn’t even look at him when he chose a booth at the back to hide himself in. It was too bad that not everyone seemed to get the memo that he wanted to be alone.

Two hours after he’d gotten there, one of the last people he wanted to see found him in his depressing state. Alec looked him up and down before wrinkling his nose in clear distain at the smell of cheap alcohol lingering in Bond’s scent.

“You’re a mess,” he said bluntly as a way of greeting. 

Bond didn’t care about anybody’s opinion at the moment, much less one from one of the people he was drinking to forget. He didn’t do a very good job outwardly showing his feelings though, because Alec welcomed himself down to join him in across the booth from James. This close he could smell Q’s unique scent lingering heavily on the other alpha and for the second time in one evening, Bond felt like he’d taken a bullet to the gut.

“What are you doing here, Alec?” He sighed when the other didn’t show signs of moving.

The other frowned. “Honestly? I originally came here to kick your arse, however have you seen yourself, James? It’s frankly pathetic.”

Bond snorted an unamused laugh. “I’m sure.”

Alec growled and slammed his fist on the table, jostling the dozen or so empty glasses and earning a look from the bartender. He sent the man a threatening glare that promised death if they were to be disturbed and Bond silently mourned the loss of any chance of getting more alcohol.

“I’m worried about you, James,” he growled. “Damn it! Can’t you see that?”

Rubbing his jaw, where Alec had left a bruise, Bond arched a brow. “Is that what we’re calling it now?”

Alec looked slightly sheepish as he sat back, visibly reigning himself in. “That was different and I’m sorry I lost control of myself. You have to understand why I did it though.”

Oh, he could and he really didn’t want to be talking about it. He’d come here to forget about all of it, not to be reminded of it like someone picking at a scab to turn it into a fresh wound.

“I can’t fault you, Alec,” he bit out through clenched teeth. “You’re his alpha.”

He reached for his glass, downing the rest of the limited amount of scotch left. There was no amount of alcohol in the world that could make this conversation any easier, but any bit helped. Across from him, Alec looked like he’d slapped him and James took a small amount of pleasure in that.

“His alpha? You think I’m Q’s alpha?” 

If Alec was going to play dumb, Bond was going to punch his face.

“He was wearing your scent. It was mixed with his! He was wearing your mark,” Bond bit out. “He’s carrying your pup. I might not be a genius like him, but it’s pretty obvious what that all means.”

Alec blanched. “James, you’ve got it all wrong.”

Bond snorted, leaning back. “Do tell, Alec? How am I wrong?”

“We are bonded, but it’s a temporary bond. Something Liz in medical cooked up. I never gave him the bite and he doesn’t want me to.” Alec met his gaze and made sure to keep it as he said his next words. “It’s all for his pup. If Q didn’t have a bondmate him and the pup would have died.”

“So you got him pregnant, but don’t plan to stay with him?” Bond was outraged at the idea. How could anyone use and toss Q aside unless they were forced to? 

Alec held up his hands and shook his head furiously. “No, the pup’s not mine.”

That placated Bond slightly, but only for a moment. His thoughts then jumped to questioning where the real father was. Why was Alec bonded, however temporarily that might be, to Q? Had the bastard abandoned Q? He didn’t even want to consider it might be something else. The thought made him sick.

Alec in his usual way seemed to sense where his thoughts had taken him and shook his head. He looked troubled though and uncertain on how to move forward.

“I can promise you that it’s not whatever you’re thinking it is.” Alec paused and gave a dry, unamused snort, before shaking his head heavenwards. “God, you two are idiots.”

“Excuse me.”

Alec sighed and leveled James with a glare. “You and Q. He should have told you the moment he saw you in the museum, instead he waited and you ran out on him with your tail tucked between your legs before he could.”

Bond’s head was spinning.

“What are you talking about?”

Leaning forward, Alec spoke slowly, making sure to annunciate his words clearly so there was no double about what he was saying. “James, the pup is yours.”

Bond was floored. The room disappeared around him and for a moment direction was irrelevant. Up was down and down was up, gravity didn’t exist and the sky could have been falling for all he cared. Reality came crashing back far too quickly as the words really sunk in and everything began to make so much sense. 

“Fuck.”

For the first time since he walked in, Alec grinned and sat back like the smug bastard he was. “Fuck indeed, old friend. You’ve found yourself in quite the mess.”

“Everyone knew,” James swore again, covering his face with a hand tiredly. “That’s why you punched me when you saw me, why everyone has been hostile. You all are offended for him.”

Alec nodded across from him, smirking like the damn cheshire cat he was.

“Fuck, I’ve really screwed this up.” He wanted to shoot himself, except that would make things into an even worse mess.

Alec shrugged. “Well then fix it.”

James looked at him tiredly. “How?”

If possible the smirk grew. “Talk to him.”


	13. Chapter Thirteen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Finally ;P
> 
> You'll also notice that I've finally added an end chapter to the chapter count! :D I have everything planned out from here on out and that means the end is in sight for this monster! We still have a while to go though and a lot of fluff, smut, angst, and more fluff to get through before then though. So buckle yourselves down and enjoy the ride!

Q dropped his keys onto the counter with a sigh, the leather satchel containing his laptop and tablet following. Today had been a long day. He had known Bond’s return was going to be hard as soon as the news had reached him. Everyone had tried to hide it from him at first, afraid of how he’d react and trying to do what they thought was best for him, however it was nearly impossible to keep anything from the new quartermaster and everyone at MI6 was learning that quickly. Q felt he handled the entire thing fairly well. He didn’t betray how much he felt like both a nervous wreck and an excited child at the knowledge that his alpha was close by at least. Dealing with everyone else’s reactions made it a bit easier to hide his own feelings.

Alec had explained the reaction to him after Q pulled him aside and dressed him down for the stunt he pulled in the hallway with Bond. Everything came down to instincts and hormones and how the human side of them knew that both parties were innocent of any real harm, but that their baser side only wanted justice for the omega they’d all become fond of. Damn pack mentality, protecting their weakest link. Q felt like he was back in sixth form listening to the lecturer drone on about second genders and urges that might come up again. Irrational, and Q hated that he understood, wanting to be mad at the injustice of their actions but knowing that he was just a guilty as them. 

It had been a week since Bond had come back and he hadn’t tried to approach him until now.

Q knew he messed up today. But Bond had been sitting there, looking a bit rougher, but no less handsome, than the last time Q had seen him and suddenly Q had been chocked up by instincts and desires he hadn’t felt in months. He’d reverted robotically into what he designated as safe, work conversation and avoided personal topics trying to gather himself together enough to bring them up. But by then James had been gone, not even looking back as he ran the other way from Q. 

And he had to realize what Q’s state had meant. Had to smell his scent mixed beneath the powdery scent of pup. Had to know what that meant. Yet he turned and walked- ran- away, which meant one thing logically.

He didn’t want anything to do with either Q or the pup.

The news wasn’t unexpected. Bond was a field agent, a double-oh that didn’t like to be leashed with responsibilities. He wouldn’t want to be tied down with a needy omega and pup. Knowing that didn’t mean that Q felt any better about being essentially rejected. He’d tried to go back to work, but the numbers had been blurring in front of his eyes and he must have blacked out, because the next moment he’d found himself curled up against Alec on the couch in his office. The alpha murmuring comforting words into his ear as he rubbed soothing circles into the small bump of Q’s stomach.

Crying- he’d blame hormones later for that- into Alec’s chest had reminded him of the day everything had both come together and came crashing down at the same time. He’d woken up then curled between Alec and Eve, both frazzled by his fainting. Q had cried then, sobbed into Alec’s shirt until the material was soaked while both alphas tried to sooth his pain even though they hadn’t yet known why. When he’d calmed down enough, he’d hiccuped through the abridged version of how James Bond had entered his life. Moneypenny had spent most of the story holding him tighter and tighter, whispering apologies over and over again in a broken voice while Alec remained silent and tried to offer his comfort to both of them.

Like that day, Q felt just as drained. The quiet flat around him only adding to his sluggish feel. It was the first time in months since he’d had the place to himself. Usually either Eve or Alec were around to fill the space with their noise, pretending not to be watching Q when they often were. Having the place to himself was strange now.

Q mechanically went through the process of putting together a cuppa for himself. The soft bubbling of the electric kettle quickly filling the silent flat, as he blindly set a mug down next to it. As Q reached for the tin of chamomile tea above the fridge, briefly pausing to linger on grainy sonogram picture hanging on the fridge. It was the only thing on the stainless steel service, a god awful bubbly pink and blue magnet holding it in place. Alec and Eve had stuck it like two proud parents and had refused to let move it elsewhere on the threat of death. 

The grainy picture of Walnut filled him with a familiar warmth that had been becoming more and more prevalent as the months wore on. He knew he’d have to start thinking of names other than the Walnut, considering his pup was both no longer the size of a walnut and that he was only one appointment away from finding out the sex. Eve would personally strangle him if he didn’t choose something different.

“Your aunt is a frightening woman,” Q murmured down at his stomach, feeling a slight shift in his weight as Walnut shifted around. It was still a new sensation he was getting used to, but Q wouldn’t exchange it for the world. 

The kettle chirped and Q quickly moved to fill his mug up. Rubbing his stomach with one hand and the other wrapped around his tea, Q moved around the kitchen and towards the living room. Using an elbow, he flipped the light switch.

And promptly shattered his mug on the floor.

“Q.”

Q blinked wildly at the blonde alpha sitting comfortably on the couch across from him, who hadn’t even flinched at the loud crash of the ceramic breaking on tile. Blue eyes watched him wearily, but Q remained rooted to the spot, unbelieving of the sight before.

“When did you….-how long…-how?” Q stuttered. “Double-oh seven?”

Bond shifted slightly, his hands coming to rest together between the v of his legs. Q tried not to focus too much of the display of muscles moving beneath the alpha’s thin shirt at the movement, or at least he tried not to be obvious about it with James watching him. Bond’s eyes didn’t stray from him and Q felt rooted to the spot under the intense gaze.

“Not long, just before you got in.”

The quiet rumble of Bond’s voice wasn’t helping Q anytime soon. He felt his intelligence level drop as his brain ran through a loop. An awkward silence filling the flat at his lack of response with Q simply staring at the alpha. Bond shifted uncomfortably on the couch, looking like he was debating getting up and some part of Q’s brain rebooted at that, screaming at him to say something to stop his alpha from leaving. 

“It’s yours.”

“What?”

Q felt his cheeks go up in flames as James’ sharp gaze was riveted to his face. He dropped his eyes to the floor and shuffled his feet away from the puddle of tea.

“The pup, it’s yours. I didn’t say it earlier because I wasn’t brave enough and of course there was business to attend to first. Queen and country before the personal, right?… -and I’m rambling now aren’t I?” Q swallowed hard, cursing himself for being an idiot. “… but you probably knew that didn’t you? What am I saying, of course you did. You just didn’t want to deal with me or-.”

“I didn’t.” Bond’s sharp voice stopped Q again and he was once again staring at the alpha.

“You didn’t what?”

Bond seemed to gather himself together in front of Q. “I didn’t know, at least not earlier. I know now.”

Hand coming up to his face, Q tried to follow. “How?”

Bond cracked a strained smile. “Alec knocked some sense into me.”

So that was where the other alpha had disappeared to earlier on him. He wasn’t sure if he was grateful for the action or if he’d find some painful way to make the other pay for doing it.

“Then why’d you run?” The words hurt to push out and Q had to restart a few times before he could say them even quietly. He choked on the next words, but he felt they needed to be said due to the circumstances. “Did you not want us?”

James flinched. “I jumped to conclusions. I smelled Alec on you and followed the easiest assumption. I should have looked harder… I’m sorry I didn’t. I never meant to give you the assumption that I- that I didn’t…”

To see the unflappable alpha at a loss of words made Q equally speechless. All he’d ever heard about double-oh seven from the others in MI6 was how he could smooth talk he way into and out of anything. Literally. M had said the same in her strange annoyed, but equally fond way. To see that same man he’d heard so much about like this when facing him, shocked Q. It sunk in slowly, he was the one with the power here. He could send James away or keep him here and the alpha would go along with either. 

He’d take scraps if that’s all Q would give him.

Feeling bold by that realization, Q crossed the room on light feet and pushed the alpha so that the other’s shoulders were resting against the back of the couch and Q was left leaning over him. The position wasn’t entirely too comfortable on his own back, not with so much weight hanging on his front due to Walnut, but Q wasn’t quite bold enough to just climb into the man’s lap yet. He wanted to, dear lord did he want to, but he needed to know a few things first.

James meanwhile stared at him with surprised blue eyes.

“James, are you saying that you would want this?” Q gestured to all of himself, “Me and your pup.”

Silence. Blue eyes flickered between Q’s eyes and Q knew James was searching for the lie. He made sure to keep his expression carefully open and vulnerable to let James know that he was earnest. A few moments passed like that before the alpa dropped his gaze to Q’s collarbone and kept it there. 

Q sighed.

“I need a verbal confirmation, double-oh seven,” he stated tiredly, fighting to keep his amusement to himself.

James slowly trailed his gaze up Q’s neck, lingering on his mouth, before meeting the omega’s gaze. Q felt himself flush with heat, his mouth going dry.

“Yes.”

“Thank God,” Q groaned.

They both moved at the same time, Q straddling the alpha’s lap with his thighs on either side of Bond’s at the same moment James moved to burrow his face into Q’s neck. Q stifled a laugh and then a moan at the sensation of the alpha’s nose brushing along the soft skin under his jaw. He felt the alpha wrap his arms around Q’s back, tugging Q as close to his body as he could get. As if by doing so, he could prevent Q from ever leaving again. Smiling, Q wrapped his own arms around his alpha and held on.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Tea and Hugs](https://archiveofourown.org/works/6107821) by [Winrael](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Winrael/pseuds/Winrael)




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